Abandoned Croatia

Croatia has a ton of amazing abandoned sights to explore so during our time in Zagreb (and our day trip out) I spent a lot of time searching for and exploring some of these sites. These are the three that I was able to make it out to.

Zeljava Airbase
The most amazing site was Zeljava Airbase, which is a huge abandoned underground airbase that it took Yugoslavia 20 years and $6 billion to build. The place is just massive, with runways built so deep into the mountain that it allowed jets to take off immediately after exiting and one that was built to be capable of sustaining a direct hit of a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb. It was used by the Yugoslav government from the time it opened in 1968 to the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, when the (Serbian controlled) Yugoslav army blew up parts of it up to so that it couldn't be used by the rebelling Croats.

Entrance number 2 (I believe)

Destroyed blast doors that the Yugoslav army blew up after abandoning the base

Entrance number 1- with a long underground runway that the jets could take off from after exiting

And at the entrance to the airbase was this decaying fighter plane that the US gave to the Yugoslav Army back in the day.

Brestovac Sanatorium
On Medvednica mountain above Zagreb is the abandoned Brestovac Sanatorium. It was opened in 1909 for the treatment of lung disease and later served as a military hospital during World War I and World War II. It was eventually shut down in 1968 and its several buildings have sat empty and decaying ever since.

Just down the mountain from Brestovac is Villa Rebar, a burned down and abandoned mansion. But the incredible thing about this site is its secret tunnels that were added by a Croatian fascist dictator during WWII, when he was living there. I didn't explore all of the tunnels but they lead to exits on the other side of the hill.

Here's what the mansion used to look like:

sometime in the 1970s - http://urbexforums.com/showthread.php/18113-Villa-Rebar-Zagreb-Croatia-April-2013

And here it is now:

In the tunnels:

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There are so many amazing places to explore in Croatia. Check out Croatia Infiltration, Secret Zagreb, and urbexforums for more sights to explore, and Destination Urban if you want to take a tour to a couple of them (we used them to go to Zeljava and Plitvice Lakes National Park and it was excellent).

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more of our Zagreb, Zeljava and Plitvice Lakes photos at our flickr