At first glance, there is nothing unusual in the rural landscape around the small Polish Polish village. The landscape is typical of the region of Lubusz district: vast fields of yellow cultures under a huge sky, interrupted only by a few spots of forest.
It seems serene, but underneath a darker story-an underground city Nazi is hidden.
Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, or Ostwall, is a fortified underground complex built before World War II, when Adolf Hitler sought to protect the eastern border from Germany against Poland and the Soviet Union.
Between the Oder and Warta rivers, which are now part of the border between Germany and Poland, the installation remains virtually intact: an extensive maze of tunnels, underground railway stations, combat facilities and huge wells covering about 32 kilometers long.
Today, visitors can descend to this practically forgotten military engineering work. The soldiers who once occupied the bunkers have been gone for a long time, as well as the 80’s and 90’s party goers, who left graffiti as a reminder of their raves. But the complex has new residents.
After the Nazis abandoned the place in 1945, the bats discovered the tunnels, considering them ideal to hibernate. About 40,000 arrive annually from all over central Europe at each fall, making it one of Europe’s largest bat colonies.
An ambitious failure
Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, or Ostwall, was expected to be completed in 1951, but the construction was abandoned when German military priorities changed. Today, the place is a museum (Pavlo Fedykovych).
The history of Ostwall began in the 1930s, when Hitler, firmly in power, launched a challenge militarization campaign for treaties that ended World War I.
He looked at Lubusz’s door, the territory between the Oder and Warta rivers, then still part of Germany as the place to be fortified. Protecting this corridor believed their strategists was critical to safeguarding Berlin.
In 1935, plans for the “fortified arc” were completed, and Hitler himself traveled to neighboring Wysoka to inaugurate the project. The construction began the following year.
Ambitious is little to describe it. The engineers imagined a defensive line almost 80 km long, with works planned until 1951. Although it was never completed, the project was already among the most advanced fortifications in the world. Only the central section used more than 56 thousand cubic meters of concrete and could house tens of thousands of soldiers.
But the priorities have changed. In 1938, Germany’s attention turned west toward France, and the construction was interrupted. The following year, after the invasion of Poland, which triggered World War II, Ostwall’s strategic objective evaporated.
The Ostwall Complex continued to be part of the Nazi war machine while the war was plaguing Europe. In January 1945, when the Red Army advanced, the Soviet forces captured the line in just three days. The underground city was abandoned.
For a while, the Polish army kept the place, but in the 1960s, the cost proved to be very high and the tunnels were more or less abandoned again.
In the darkness
Underground rooms show what life was like during the days when the place was an advanced Nazi post. Here can be seen military uniforms and a poster with the phrase “Only Hitler” (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)
The 21st century gave Ostwall a second life. With the support of the European Union and local enthusiasm, the complex was transformed into a dark tourism destination.
In 2011, the Museum of the Fortified Region of MięDzyrzecz was inaugurated, incorporating 30 km of tunnels into the central section.
Outside, the entrance bunker looks almost caricatured, with green mushroom domes. Inside, the air is cold and humid but surprisingly hospitable.
“The Nazis planned this complex for a prolonged stay of the soldiers, so it was all built to make it more habitable,” says Mikolaj Wiktoowski, a museum guide and local history enthusiast.
Underground life has been partially recreated: uniform mannequins are guarded in administrative rooms and bunk beds, even outside a bathroom, evoking the daily rhythms of a missing garrison.
The most impressive moment occurs in the main well, an abyss that opens deeply on Earth.
For something built almost a century ago, it is an impressive feat of engineering. The descending staircase was built with the frighteningly smooth accuracy by which many Nazi megaestructures are known. It leads to a large central tunnel coated with carris and tubes.
Lurking in the shadows
Tunnels are now home to one of Europe’s largest bat colonies, with at least 12 different species using them for hibernation (Pavlo Fedykovych)
Being 40 meters below ground in a vast corridor enough for trains and military vehicles is surreal – at the same time inspiring and disturbing. The more it goes, the colder it gets, with an atmosphere that evokes “Fallout” or “The Last of Us”. There are no mutants or zombies here, but winged creatures peek at the shadows.
No one knows exactly when the bats colonized the tunnels for the first time, but in the 1970s, scientists began to record colonies. Today, 12 species hibernate here.
“Bats discovered these tunnels and loved the stable temperature, entering the system through superficial bunkers and ventilation wells,” explains Wiktoowski. “During the hibernation period at the end of the fall and winter, its number may exceed 40 thousand.”
For visitors, your presence is difficult to ignore. Bats suddenly come out of darkness, with their sharp winches echoing in the concrete. Others are hanging real estate in vaults, dormant. During the time of hibernation, the museum limits access to give them rest.
Bunker people
In the 80s and 90s, the tunnels were occupied by “people of the countercultural tunnels, who left their marks on the walls (Pavlo Fedykovych)
Bats are not the only ones to have claimed ostwall. In the late twentieth century, the tunnels became the home of a subculture known as Bunker people.
The movement was born here, says Mikolaj Wiktoowski. “It started in the early 1980s and reached its peak in the late 1990s.”
They performed raves, celebrated marriages, and protested against authority in this unlikely underground site. But the maze was dangerous: at least five people died in accidents, from probes to wells to fires caused by careless cigarettes.
The graffiti who have left – declarations of love, rudimentary sketches, anti -communist slogans – still cover the walls, giving color to the gray passages.
“Grafitti are the soul of this place,” says WikTorowski, who photographs works of art and registration and expects to publish a book on the subject. “Without them, we would only have naked and lifeless walls.”
“Tuscany Polish”
Neighbor Zielona Gora is often called “Tuscan Polaca” due to her vineyards and landscapes (Monticelllo/Istockphoto/Getty Images)
Museum visitors can choose from three guided tours: “short” (1.5 hours), “long” (2.5 hours) and “Extrema” (3 to 8 hours). They can also opt for a journey in an underground electric train and a tour in a BTR-152, a Soviet armored vehicle from the 1950s for an extra dose of atmosphere.
The museum is currently the most visited place in the Lubusz region of Poland. But the area reserves other surprises.
Zielona Gora, the capital, is often called “Tuscan Polaca” due to her vineyards and landscapes. Every year, in September, the Winobranie Wine Festival celebrates the production of the region’s 40 wineries.
And outside the town of świebodzin, with open arms, it is considered to be the highest statue of Jesus Christ in the world-52 meters high, almost 3 meters higher than his counterpart in Rio de Janeiro.
Here, short distances connect surprisingly different experiences: a dive into Nazis tunnels, a meeting with the largest bat colony in Europe, a look up toward Jesus and finally a glass of local wine at night.
