ŽELJAVA AIR BASE

This abandoned former air force base of socialist Yugoslavia (Vojni Aerodrom Željava), partly underground, is one of the most famous sites in Europe for lovers of modern military remains. Located at the foot of the Lička Plješivica massif, between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, it was one of the largest air bases in the world and the most ambitious project carried out by the Tito regime. The construction was launched in 1957 under the code name Objekat 505 ( "Building 505"). Completed twelve years later, it represented a cost of the equivalent of 7 billion euros today. Commissioned in 1968, the Željava base was designed to resist a nuclear explosion. Three squadrons of MIG-21s and F-84 Thunderjets, i.e. sixty jet fighters, were housed in the underground facilities with all their equipment. The 3.5 km of tunnels could also accommodate a thousand soldiers capable of living independently for two months. Through other underground passages, the base was connected to several sites in the region, including a fuel depot in Bihać. On May 16, 1992, the site was sabotaged by the Yugoslav army that had passed under Serbian control.

Visit. Left abandoned since 1995, the site is dangerous. Already, the surroundings are full of mines. Another concern: the galleries are polluted by the chemicals released during the sabotage of 1992. The base has five runways, two of which are now located in Croatia and three others on either side of the border. The asphalt parts are safe. Nearby, the wrecks of two American-made aircraft remain: an F-84 Thunderjet used for reconnaissance and a Douglas C-47 transport aircraft. At the foot of Mount Javornik-Tisov (1,200 m above sea level), four aircraft entrances open onto the galleries. Only a part of the immense "corridors" where the planes were parked is easily accessible. But metal debris, half-collapsed galleries and the absence of lighting have transformed the base into a huge labyrinth that is difficult to penetrate. Apart from the reinforced concrete structure itself, the underground part does not contain any interesting remains anyway. To visit this dangerous site, we recommend three good connoisseurs of the base and its surroundings: Slavko Crnković ([email protected], +385 99 452 75 26), Osman Sulić ([email protected], +387 62 17 52 01) and Samir Aličić ([email protected], +387 61 41 97 28).