Near the bridge over the Tagliamento river in San Michele al Tagliamento (Venice) is a Cold-War bunker. In April 1949 Italy joined the North Atlantic Treaty and, in 1950, began to work on the “permanent fortifications” positioned on three defensive lines: the border with the then-Yugoslavia, the Isonzo and Tagliamento rivers.
Building on the bunker on the banks of the Tagliamento river began at the end of the Seventies, it was intended to defend the bridge on state road SS14 and the Venice-Trieste train line. It is the only infantry defence building in Veneto, and the southernmost of all. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent restructuring of NATO defensive strategies, the building was decommissioned in 1992.
In its final configuration, the bunker has six machine-gun positions in a turret with four slits, two a/c positions for vehicles and a command-observation post.
The NBC decontamination room is at the entrance, behind a bulletproof steel door, along with showers, a changing room, the petrol and diesel reserves, the generator room and a place for batteries and accumulators. The rooms were well-lit by two independent generators.
A reinforced door with a rifle slit opens onto the command room with foldable metal tables and benches and stools for radio operators. A metal ladder leads to the observation turret, protected by a semi-circular cast iron barrier and, in turn, this leads to a dorm with 6 bunkbeds for on-duty personnel to rest.
Fondazione Veneto Film Commission
Via Carducci, 32 – 30171 Venezia Mestre
Phone: +39 041 279 43 38
Email: info@venetofilmcommission.com
