Herzegovina - It was built to withstand nuclear war, a secret bunker to shelter communist Yugoslavia's strongman and his inside circle. Decades later, the massive underground complex is about to be reborn as one of the world's quirkiest art galleries. A Kalashnikov-toting soldier still guards the entrance of Josip Broz Tito's subterranean fortress - a fitting if anachronistic symbol of the secrecy that once surrounded the structure. Outside of Marshal Tito and his closest confidants, its existence was known only to four generals and the handful of soldiers guarding it on completion in 1979 until Bosnia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1992 and its new army took over. The brainchild of a group of Sarajevo artists, the gallery is to stage a Biennale of Contemporary Art starting next year. Despite its more peaceful purpose, the bunker still won't be easy to access. The entrance lies behind a nondescript garage door of a remote house at the end of a lonely road east of the town of Konjic, 40 kilometers south of Sarajevo. Once inside, a corridor takes the visitor to a 280 meter deep U-shaped complex dug into the mountain behind the house. Bigger doors to the left along the main corridor hide the utility rooms - a fresh water basin, a generator room with two 25-ton fuel tanks and the air-conditioning system. The smaller doors to the right lead to over 100 small bedrooms, offices and conference rooms, decorated with simple wooden furniture and the obligatory portrait of Tito in his uniform. Better quality wallpaper in the deepest part of the bunker adorns the late leader's offices and his home quarters, including a small and simple bedroom with the building's king-size bed and an en-suite bathroom. The 6,500 sq. meter (70,000 sq. foot) bunker was built during the Cold War at a cost equivalent to $4.6 billion. If restocked with supplies it would still serve its purpose - allowing 350 people to live and work for six months. After completion its engineers built five more in Iraq for Saddam Hussein, a Tito friend. Those underground fortresses still exist in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra and Nasiriyah.
