I explored Bratislava’s military bunkers and found a photo of Hitler and an underground hospital

The military bunkers in Petržalka are worth exploring if you’re interested in Czechoslovak history. The two that fascinated me most were B-S 4 Lány, where Hitler was photographed, and B-S 2 Mulda, with an abandoned hospital underground. If you go, please don’t damage anything: they’re of great historical value.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

How I saw them

On my own and on foot, clocking up almost 20,000 steps in a day

What to expect inside

Most bunkers have been looted and are just empty rooms below ground; some are locked

Bunker B-S 2 Mulda

What surprised me most was an old military hospital underground, still with its original equipment

Bunker B-S 4 Lány

Now a museum; I recreated a period photo of Hitler in front of it

Bunker B-S 6 Vrba

Restored, with opening hours and an admission fee, but hard to reach on foot between the motorways

Bunker B-S 15 Ostrov

Closed, but I recommend the walk to it across Starý Háj island for the woods

I wrote this article in 2020. Prices, opening hours and transport connections may have changed since then, so please check them before you go.

The military bunkers in Bratislava have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Born and bred in Bratislava, I used to cycle past them. In my head they were filed under ‘those abandoned buildings where junkies sleep’. I never looked into why they were here, why they stood exactly where they did, who owned them, why they had hooks on the roof or what role the military bunkers in Bratislava played in Czechoslovak history. Until now.

Tip from Milan I’d recommend booking your accommodation as early as you can, because rooms in a good location at a fair price go first. Here you’ll find accommodation offers in the area valid today.

Military bunkers in Bratislava’s Petržalka: their history and why they’re here

The coronavirus crisis gave me the perfect excuse to take a closer look at them. When I started thinking about what it’s like to live in a country with closed borders, I remembered our bunkers in Petržalka. Among other things, they were part of the Iron Curtain, which stopped Czechoslovaks escaping to Austria and the capitalist West.

Then I came across a photo of Adolf Hitler in Bratislava, taken in front of one of the bunkers, B-S 4 ‘Lány’. So I started digging and visited the bunkers on my own, one by one. Here they are: the military bunkers in Bratislava.

Military bunkers in Bratislava

Military bunkers in Petržalka and a photo of Adolf Hitler in Bratislava

Before we look at the individual military bunkers in Bratislava in more detail, I’d like to tell you about the Treaty of Trianon. I won’t bore you with details, years and figures. Instead, I’ll pick out a few juicy titbits from history that help explain why the military bunkers in Petržalka are so interesting.

The Treaty of Trianon and how Czechoslovakia broke it fifteen times

The Treaty of Trianon was essentially a peace agreement between the victorious powers of the First World War and Hungary. It also set Hungary’s borders with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. One of its conditions was that we, as Czechoslovakia, agreed with Hungary on one rather serious point: in the border area on the south bank of the Danube, where Petržalka is today, we would not build any military structures. None at all.

In the end we built fifteen of them here. Fifteen military bunkers and anti-tank ditches that follow the line of the border. As far as Hungary was concerned, we broke the Treaty of Trianon fifteen times. We did have a reason, though: Nazi Germany’s army, which was heading our way and which we needed to protect ourselves from. But building them backfired on us. The Germans took them over and used them as a training ground. The cheek of it.

How were the bunkers equipped, and why did the Germans take them over?

For their time, the bunkers were very modern and among the best in Europe. No two were the same: each was built to its own plan. They had flush toilets, their own electricity generator, machine guns and cannons, and in a flood they could be hermetically sealed to keep the water out. Each one held between 10 and 40 men, with supplies for 14 days.

What’s more, they didn’t fire straight ahead at the enemy but diagonally, in a crossfire with the neighbouring bunker. That way they could put down effective fire on the enemy from both sides. The Nazis liked that. Another big advantage was that the soldiers didn’t have to wear gas masks inside, because the bunkers had air filters against gas attacks.

Adolf Hitler came to see the bunkers in Bratislava in person

After the Germans took them over, even Adolf Hitler came to see them. A photograph shows him at bunker B-S 4 ‘Lány’, inspecting the German army’s new property (photo below). Eventually the bunkers came back to us and became part of the Iron Curtain. It kept Czechoslovaks from fleeing west to Austria in search of a better life. Here’s a short timeline to help you picture what happened on our soil.

• From 1935 to 1938 we built the military bunkers in Petržalka
• In 1938 the German army took over the bunkers, and Hitler came to see them too
• In 1948 they became part of the Iron Curtain and guarded Czechoslovakia’s borders, including against our own citizens trying to escape to a better life in the West

Why are there military bunkers in Petržalka?

We broke the Treaty of Trianon, but we weren’t the only country to do so. Europe was being torn apart by wars, and back then it was hard to predict what would happen next. The bunkers in Petržalka were originally built to protect us from Nazi Germany advancing into our territory. We wanted to defend ourselves against Hitler. There are many more of them elsewhere in Slovakia, and in the Czech Republic too.

On the Petržalka side of the Danube there were originally 15 military bunkers, and twelve of them survive today. In the list below, the ones still standing are in bold. Each is labelled B-S, a number and a name. B stands for ‘Bratislava’ and S for ‘srub’, the Czech word for a blockhouse (zrub in Slovak). The number identifies the bunker, and each one had its own code name. The names are in Czech because this was Czechoslovakia at the time.

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Visiting the bunkers in Petržalka: map and locations

Because the borders were closed, I couldn’t get round all the bunkers. Although they’re in Slovakia, they lie in the border zone, which at the time was off limits because of the coronavirus crisis. I did try, but the police wanted to give me a €150 fine. Next time, then. I tracked my route and calories with a fitness watch and then synced the data to Strava.

I clocked up almost 20,000 steps that day. I’ve also written about how I walked 10,000 steps a day for a whole month and how my body changed.

The 15 military bunkers in Petržalka

B-S 1 ‘Štěrkoviště’
B-S 2 ‘Mulda’
B-S 3 ‘Paseka’
B-S 4 ‘Lány’
B-S 5a and 5b ‘Vídeň I’ and ‘Vídeň II’ were destroyed and reportedly lie under the motorway
B-S 6 ‘Vrba’
B-S 7 ‘Cvičiště’
B-S 8 ‘Hřbitov’: the largest, now a museum
B-S 9 ‘Kittsee’
B-S 10 ‘Tři hranice’
B-S 11 ‘Janík’ has not survived
B-S 12 ‘Oroszvár’ has not survived either
B-S 13 ‘Stoh’
B-S 14 ‘Duna’
B-S 15 ‘Ostrov’

Map of the military bunkers in Petržalka, Bratislava

I’ve put together a map of the bunkers, which are marked in red. In the layers you can also switch on anti-tank walls and ditches, lots of underground shelters in Bratislava’s forests and the remains of the Iron Curtain.

Bunker B-S 1 Štěrkoviště in Jelení háj, near Pečniansky les

Bunker B-S 1 Štěrkoviště was the very first military bunker built on the Petržalka side of the Danube, and the first one I visited. When I was there (May 2020), it was open and you could walk straight in.

Some of the bunkers are open to the public (read: there’s no door), while others are locked, sealed up or have been bought by private owners. B-S 1 is open, but you won’t find anything inside. Most of the bunkers have been looted, and below ground there are only empty rooms. This one was armed with two cannons, a 20-centimetre-thick armoured bell, a machine gun and an anti-tank gun that could fire across the Danube.

Bunker B-S 2 Mulda in Petržalka and its abandoned underground hospital

Nobody knows to this day who painted bunker B-S 2 Mulda. My guess is some military enthusiasts. What surprised me most, though, was the old makeshift military hospital beneath the bunker, still with its original equipment. To be honest, I felt a little uneasy going down there.

The bunker stands in the middle of a dense floodplain forest in Jelení háj, and there isn’t a soul around. On its roof you can still find original pieces of camouflage canvas, which hid the bunker from aircraft that would otherwise have bombed it. This bunker also has indestructible steel bells, 20 centimetres thick (on the far right in the photo), which protected the weapons. Not the soldiers’ lives.

A Second World War hospital in bunker B-S 2 Mulda

I’d recommend watching this YouTube video. It was filmed only a month before my visit, but back then the basement hospital still had far more equipment. After the video came out, other people probably went down there and carried the equipment off to their private collections. After all, it belongs to nobody. Bunker B-S 2 also had its own ammunition store and its own well, and it could be hermetically sealed against floods.

Military bunker B-S 3 Paseka in Bratislava

Military bunker B-S 3 Paseka is just as well hidden in the floodplain forest. This one was closed, and it looked a lot like the others. In front of the bunker there are ditches that protect the machine guns. If a bomb went off next to the bunker, the earth would fall into the ditch and the machine guns could keep firing. The ditches were also used to collect the magazines.

Military bunker B-S 4 Lány in Petržalka and the photo of Hitler in Bratislava

This bunker could also be hermetically sealed, and it had its own system of obstacles against tanks and infantry, plus an anti-tank ditch. Barbed-wire props are still here as part of the exhibition, because bunker B-S 4 is now a museum.

Adolf Hitler in Bratislava, photographed in front of a military bunker in Petržalka

I recreated the photo above. Same place, same angle, just 82 years later. Did I pull it off?

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B-S 7 Cvičiště, B-S 8 Hřbitov, B-S 9 Kittsee, B-S 10 Tři hranice

I couldn’t visit these four bunkers. They’re in the border zone, which was closed at the time because of the coronavirus crisis. I did try, but the police stopped me and my friends and wanted to give us a €150 fine and send us into quarantine. Luckily, we talked our way out of it. I’ll come back once the restrictions are eased.

Bunker B-S 7 has its own mock-up of a tank, and there are several anti-tank ditches around it. B-S 8 is the largest military bunker in Bratislava. I’d also point you to the beautiful military cemetery right next to it, with 321 symbolic white crosses. B-S 9 has a hexagonal floor plan, and there used to be a guard hut on its roof. Sadly, bunker B-S 10 lies partly under the motorway and is hard to reach on foot.

Military bunker B-S 6 Vrba in Petržalka

Bunker B-S 6 lies between motorways and a road, and getting here on foot is a bit of a pain. Still, it’s worth it. The bunker has been nicely restored and belongs to a private owner, who bought it at a state auction for €7,000. He owns only the bunker. The land belongs to the Church, which won’t sell it to him. It has opening hours and charges admission, and I’m definitely not going to miss a tour. You’ll find the opening hours on their website.

Military bunker B-S 13 Stoh in Petržalka

Stoh had solid armoured doors, its own electricity generator and the usual 20-centimetre-thick steel bell that protected the weapons. It didn’t stay in service for long. In the 1970s it was abandoned altogether because of a new road nearby, which blocked its field of fire. Nobody could shoot from the bunker any more, so the soldiers left it.

Bunker B-S 14 Duna in the woods by the Petržalka flood dyke, probably hit by a bomb

According to the internet, B-S 14 Duna is one of the best-preserved bunkers in Bratislava. I disagree. It was supposed to be sealed up so that nobody could get inside. Whether that ever happened, I don’t know. What caught my attention, though, was its reinforced concrete shell, which is clearly bomb-damaged. I assume a bomb hit the bunker during an air raid by enemy planes. You can see just how tough it is. The solid reinforced concrete withstood the bomb that fell on it, and the blast exposed its structure.

The bunker is part of the so-called Military Camp in Petržalka, an open-air military museum that has since closed down.

Bunker B-S 15 Ostrov and the walk across Starý Háj island

Number 15 is the last bunker of the Petržalka fortifications, and I loved the woods around it. You reach it on foot across Starý Háj island, which is a fair walk from Petržalka. I’d recommend it, even though the bunker is completely closed.

Military bunkers in Bratislava: history, my visit and the Hitler photo

The military bunkers in Bratislava’s Petržalka still fascinate me, and I’ll definitely go back to see them again. When you visit, please don’t damage them. They still haven’t been declared protected heritage sites and people see them as ruins, but their historical value is huge.