#bunkers

[unbfacts]

Switzerland is the only country able to shelter 114 percent of its population in bunkers, with around 370,000 shelters equipped with air filtration systems, blast doors, toilets, bunk beds, ventilation, command centers, and emergency generators.

[faroukmarduk]

Capbreton, France Atlantic coast, August 2008, Canon 400D, efs 17-55mm f2/8 is usm, 24mm, f8.0, 8s

Shooting a long pause photography on a sandy beach is tricky !

[abandonedography]

WW2 bunkers in Normandy

The abandoned bunkers are slowly falling down the cliffs from erosion

[germanpostwarmodern]

In July of 1958 young French philosopher Paul Virilio (1932-2018) literally stumbled across the remains of the Atlantic Wall, the coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany along the coasts of e.g. France and Denmark: useless, forgotten and partly covered in layers of sand they fascinated him due to their archaic presence. This chance encounter was the starting point of a decade-long project to document, photograph and research these leftovers of the Second World War. In 1975 Virilio presented the results of his endeavor at Musée des arts décoratifs in Paris in the form of an exhibition and a book titled „Bunker archéology“.

In the decades following, the publication was reprinted in different translations and formats, often lacking the initial visual documentation of the bunkers and thus taking away much of Virilio’s research. Against this background the book’s recent reprint by Spector Books is all the more appreciated: newly translated by Simon Cowper „Bunker Archeology“ beautifully reproduces Virilio’s original photographs and thus reinstates the explanatory power of the original publication.

But the book’s power (and harrowing insights) not only lies in the photographs of the bunkers but even more in Virilio’s writing and research: with archeological rigor he recorded, systematized, typed and also drew the bunkers during the countless trips he undertook together with his wife and his daughter Sophie (who co-edited the reprint and also penned a foreword). Beyond this archeological effort Virilio reverts to the horrors that are associated with and inscribed into the bunkers: they were designed to protect German soldiers and give them a free field of fire, buildings of life and death so to say. Virilio also devotes an entire chapter to Albert Speer and his precisely planned machinery of war, his complicit collaborators and the Organisation Todt that was responsible for the Atlantic Wall.

„Bunker Archeology“ is a monumental book that with great clarity shows the interlocking of architecture and war, the landscapes it shaped and what remains of it. Still a fascinating yet disturbing and such highly recommended read!

[grits-gal-raised-in-the-south]

Protest Chant: "Albania belongs to Albanians! Albania is not for sale!" Plans for luxury resorts on the Adriatic Sea have long worried environmentalists. The developments are now a flashpoint for broader frustrations with the government.

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

Man Dragged During Protest Against Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Resort Plan: A man was dragged along the beach by security personnel in Albania after arriving to protest the construction of a luxury development linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The scene in Zvernec on Saturday, May 30, sparked outrage, leading to two days of demonstrations in the country’s capital, Tirana.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/world/europe/albania-kushner-protests-hotel.html?smid=url-share

Protests have grown in recent days against plans by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, to develop luxury properties on an ecologically sensitive portion of the Albanian coast.

The protests, in the capital and in coastal towns, have become a lightning rod for widespread discontent in Albania, long one of Europe’s poorest countries. Another protest was planned for Tuesday night in Tirana, the capital.

For years, the plans — a $1.4 billion luxury hotel complex on an island off the coast and another development on a peninsula that is home to sensitive wetlands — have generated concerns about conservation and transparency.

Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania has repeatedly described the projects as a chance to expand the country’s booming tourist economy and to attract foreign investors.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rama said in a post on social media that the projects represented “the ambition to create the most attractive destination of this side of the Mediterranean.”

He has rejected suggestions by opponents of the plan that Mr. Kushner, who is one of several investors in the project, received preferential treatment to curry favor with his father-in-law, Mr. Trump.

The White House referred questions to Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, which has been backed mostly with funding from the Saudi Arabian government. Affinity Partners referred questions to Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, the developer for both the Albanian projects.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to create a world-class destination and make one of the largest private investments in the region’s history,” Asher Abehsera, the chairman of Sazan, the projects’ developer, said in a statement.

He said their focus included “responsible stewardship” of the environment.

Not everyone in Albania agrees.

Taulant Bino, the head of the Albanian Ornithological Society and an opponent of the plan, said he was heartened that the opposition to the project had grown beyond environmental campaigners.

It’s more or less everything there,” he said. “You find people from the left, people from the right, people from different religious beliefs.”

One issue, he said, is that no environmental impact report has been released publicly, as normally required for such a development project. Since late April, Mr. Bino said, demonstrators have gathered at the site of one of the planned developments on the Zvernec Peninsula, a 1,000-acre coastal area that is home to an array of birds, including flamingos and pelicans.

The protests started after he and other environmentalists noticed what looked like the start of construction, which he said included the tracks of heavy equipment and bulldozers dismantling sand dunes.

Mr. Bino said that in the past few days, the protests intensified after fencing, with barbed wire, was erected in the area. He said there is at least one access road, too.

And on Saturday, verified video shows, the disputes turned ugly.

Men shouted across barbed wire fences. Two men dragged another man across the sand by his arms, another clip shows, while people slung what looked like dirt at each other.

Mr. Bino and other protesters see the project as an emblem of what they fear could be democratic backsliding in Albania, which emerged from decades of Communist rule in 1991.

“It’s not only transparency about environmental law — but it’s transparency in general,” Mr. Bino said.

It’s about democracy,” Mr. Bino added. “The protests are, of course, centered around protected areas — but it’s more about democracy in general.”

For years, locals have raised concerns about the ownership chain of the land, but deals have steamed ahead, overriding local frustrations.

In December 2024, after months of consternation, Albania gave preliminary approval to a plan proposed by Mr. Kushner to build on the uninhabited island of Sazan, once a secretive military base for submarines.

The Zvernec site would include 6,000 hotel rooms and villas if plans come to fruition.

Albanian environmentalists fear similar projects could follow. Mr. Bino, the conservationist, said people were worried that the plans could set a precedent in other environmentally sensitive areas.

“This project is becoming a sort of catalyst,” he said of the Zvernec site, adding that others were just “waiting in the wings” for approval.

[noosphe-re]

Bunker Archeology, Paul Virilio

[fictionalred-photos]

Moo door