Abandoned anti aircraft missile base and bunkers in Slovakia

During my research for photo spots this winter I discovered an interesting lost place not too far from Vienna. It’s a former Soviet air defense missile base on a small hill in Slovakia. Its purpose was to defend Bratislava against a potential invasion from the west.

According to my research, this base was abandoned around 1983 and was still off limits for a few more years. Today, all the gates and warning signs are gone and the place is freely accessible. My friend Mike and I even met a dozen of people hiking there. We also met a group of young Slovaks having a picknick in the area.

Probably because this lost place is freely accessible, there’s nothing left inside the buildings. Everything that was of potential value is gone: metal handrails, wires, furniture, even toilets and washbowls have been taken. Instead, you’ll find lots of graffiti in that place.

Know before you go

First, there’s almost no cell phone coverage on the hill except for a few spots.

Second, you have to hike uphill for an hour from the parking lot. There's no other way up there. And don't panic, if you encounter a lot of other people up there. The place was freely accessible when I was there in 2018.

Lastly, the bunkers are totally dark. So if you plan to enter the bunkers, be sure to have a strong flashlight, e.g. the Olight S30R, which shines a bright 1000 lumens into the darkest corners of any lost place.

And as a backup, I always carry an Olight S1R Baton.

The residential building

This is the spot you’ll see. It’s near the main road to your left. It’s a three story building. The stairs inside were still intact as of April 2018: only the handrails were missing. All floors have the same layout except for the first floor. It seems like there was a kitchen and cafeteria. A great photo spot because of the colorful graffiti and a fallen over wall. I’ve no idea what the tires are doing in the kitchen, but what the hell!

The room behind this hole could have once been a kitchen

A second spot for great photos is the stairwell. I strongly recommend using a fisheye lens there. I took this one using the Moment Fisheye Lens and then ran the final photo through SKRWT to fix the bent lines.

Use a fisheye lens to get this shot if the stairwell in the abandoned residential building

Finally, then ground floor is a great place to phot9graph, too. The wooden ceiling was partially fallen down. Be careful on the ground floor. There’s a quite dark area with two doors. Behind those doors is something like a cellar - 6 feet down with no stairs!

Bunkers and Hangars

Once you’re done in the residential building, continue along the main road. You’ll pass by a few more unspectacular sheds and three garages until you reach a place that probably was a car wash. Go back and turn right and follow the road uphill. Now you’ll encounter three bunkers with hangers where, most likely, the mobile missile launchers were hidden from air surveillance.

My good friend Mike standing in front of a hangar entrance

You have to look closely to find them all. They’re hidden in the woods. Follow the small trails leaving the main road to get to the huge hangars.

The bunkers at Devinska Kobyla are well hidden in the woods.

For each hangar, there’s also a bunker that’s accessible either through a door in the back or on the of the hangar. Those narrow corridors inside the bunkers connect the hangars. They’re narrow and the doors between the corridors are only 3 feet in height. Don’t go in there if you’re not comfortable in narrow, cold, dark and wet places.

Inside a a bunker at Devinska Kobyla

Bonus: Great View over the Danube valley

Once you’ve explored the last bunker, keep left until you reach the wall surrounding the area. To the left there’s a huge gap in the wall. Pass it and continue a small trail and you’ll be rewarded with a great view over the Danube Valley. A great place to take a break before you head back to your car.

Apps and gear I used to take iPhone photos at Devínska Kobyla

To photograph inside those buildings and bunkers, I used either ProCamera App in Low Light Mode or Hydra Camera App for the better lit places. My iPhone X was permanently mounted to the Amazon Basics Travel Tripod that, so far, survived all the lost lost places I’ve been to, including the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Inside the residential building I used the Moment Fisheye Lens.

Back home, I edited all the photos in Lightroom Mobile.

And finally, here are more eerie lost place photos taken around the world.