Cutest Bunker Guard Ever!

Throughout the Cold War era, escalating anxiety about the nuclear arms race inspired the establishment of numerous bunkers and fallout shelters within Prague and its surrounding areas. Part of the Prague metro system, in fact, was built to double as shelter and can house up to 300,000 people in hermetically sealed bunkers. It is said that there are up to 800 shelters in and around Prague, but many of them have been closed off for several decades. Despite this, the underground bunkers have been maintained. All the equipment is purported to be in working order, and the shelters are ready to offer cover should — God forbid — the need arise, even today.

Entrance to Kryt Folimanka (Folimanka Shelter)

Someone figured out that these venues might be of interest to people in the community, and several are now are open for touring.

Recently Folimanka Shelter — located in Park Folimanka on the southern edge of New Town — opened to the public on a limited basis. On the third Saturday of the month anyone can visit for free, self-guided tours. Ben, Garrett, and I made an outing to the bunker in January.


Information was available in Czech and English. We got a map of the shelter that included a description of the function of each room/chamber and a pamphlet listing a little history and some statistics.


Folimanka Shelter has an area of approximately 1332 sq meters, which is more than 14,000 sq feet.

Long corridors with supplies stacked up on the sides.

According to the pamphlet, during an emergency people would sit on benches lining the walls of the corridors. Each person would have an allotted 0.8m³ of floor area.



I caught Ben in the women's WC.



These toilets may work fine right now,

Vintage toilet paper

... but you might want to bring your own TP stash.



Dust and collection filters in one of two "Dust Chambers"

The bunker would be pressurized during its use as a shelter, as described in this Radio Praha interview:

“The ventilation system takes in air from outside through these filters and it creates overpressure in the shelter. The shelter is then ‘inflated’, so to speak, and weaponised gases or toxic substances wouldn’t be able to get in thanks to the overpressure created by the ventilation system and the filters.”

Air Filtration Chamber






Men's WC, with ventilation shaft/emergency exit in back

Both the men's and women's WC had these exits in them.

Ventilation shaft/Emergency exit


Had to chuckle that the toilet brush was in the men's bathroom. As if. 


Decontamination showers 

Anyone exposed to toxins and contaminants from an attack outside would be brought to showers for decontamination before entering the general area of the shelter.

Power Station

A three-cylinder diesel generator, fuel storage tank, and pump provide energy to power the water supplies and ventilation filters.

Squeee!
It's a Škoda!

Reviewing the shelter's map


Pitná voda (potable water)



Presumably these crates were full of supplies for those hunkering down in the shelter. Folimanka could house between 1,260-1,300 people (depending on what information you're reading) for three days. At that point, the hope was that people would be transported out of the city to a safe environment for the long haul.

This notice indicates the contents of this crate were last inspected on April 12, 1990. 


Door to one of the morgues

There were two morgues in the shelter that could hold up to 10 bodies each.


We left the bunker and strolled through the park to see some of the above-ground features. Ben and Garrett determined that the men's WC exit led to this dome, which is no longer exit-able.

Blast-proof dome atop ventilation shaft and emergency exit. Exit is bricked off (on the right).

Graffiti is pretty common throughout the city, but this structure was left in rather pathetic shape. We headed off to find the dome over the women's WC.


What's this we see?


Could it be??

Blast-proof R2D2 atop second ventilation shaft

I would feel so much more secure know that R2D2 was keeping watch over my bunker!

More shots from this week, on a sunnier day.

This emergency exit was painted and all blinged up sometime in October by stealthy graffiti artists in the night. It was first noticed by authorities and/or the media on October 20.


Prague artists have a reputation for surreptitiously decorating public structures. Officially, doing so is illegal, and the work often gets removed or painted over. The Prague 2 mayor has said, however, that R2D2 can remain in Folimanka.

Covert droid surveys Bělehradská street.

City Hall was quick to caution street artists, however, that their spray painting would not be tolerated elsewhere.


Gotta think the other dome is wondering if and when it will ever get a facelift.

Comments

  1. Maybe the men’s exit gets a BB8?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought about that, too. Another option — that might be easier, albeit a bit more obscure — is turning the dome into a massive K2SO head.

      Delete
    2. (I don’t know who that is - but cool?)

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    3. He was the droll droid of the doomed crew from Rogue One. He was hilariously sardonic.

      Delete

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