From the road, it was hidden. A long tunnel, carved through the hillside in front, was the only way inside. This was not somewhere you could idly wander – it was the entrance to a military base.

The tunnel, nearly twice the length of a football field, is cooler than the air outside. Here and there, pools of water collect on the floor. A harmonious hum gets louder and louder as you reach the centre of the tunnel. Behind, the guard standing at the tunnel entrance is a silhouette against the bright light, the size of a toy soldier.

In total, you have to walk 656ft (198m) to reach the nondescript parking lot at the end. A grey institutional building looms above. This is Bunk’Art 1, and a few minutes’ walk up the path beside leads into one of the Cold War’s most secretive hideaways.

***

This is, Artemisa Muco says, the best place to be in Tirana on a summer’s day when the mercury is hitting 40°C.

Muco works as one of the guides at Bunk’Art 1. The 24-year-old cultural history graduate spends her days in a place so secretive it was known only as ‘Facility 0774’, an emotionless moniker for a structure built to survive the end of days.

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