Vineta Coastal Artillery Battery Complex (Underground City) in Świnoujście

The Underground City on Wolin island is a complex of bunkers of the former Vineta coastal artillery battery, built in 1936-1938 by the German navy to defend the port of Świnoujście. After 1945 the bunkers were joined by underground corridors and for decades served as a secret command post. Today the site is a branch of the Coastal Defence Museum and can be visited with a guide.

The Kriegsmarine battery

The Kriegsmarine command decided to strengthen the defences of the port of Świnoujście in 1935. The battery consisted of seven bunkers, combat and auxiliary. Four barracks-and-combat bunkers, designated with the names Anton, Cäsar, Dora and Emil, had a section for the crew and a position for a 15 cm gun with ammunition stores. The command bunker was the only two-storey one and directed the fire of the whole battery. It was equipped with periscopes for observing the Pomeranian Bay and a rangefinder, and the optics are covered by a steel armoured cupola weighing more than 60 tonnes, preserved to this day. The ammunition bunker was blown up by the Germans in May 1945.

A secret unit of the communist period

At the beginning of the 1960s the army converted the former German bunkers into an advanced front commander's post. Five bunkers were joined by underground corridors with a total length of 1492 metres. The unit had the number JW 8646 and was among the most secret sites in Poland, and Warsaw Pact and Polish Army forces trained here. In the 1980s it became the post of the commander of the Navy, and in the 1990s of the commander of the 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla. The last large exercise was the Anaconda 95 manoeuvres.

The museum

The army decided to dispose of the site in 2007, and on 31 January 2013 the unit was struck off the list of military facilities and handed over to the Coastal Defence Museum. The museum staff opened the complex to visitors within a few months. Among others, the engine room bunker, bunker A and the command bunker were made accessible, in which a map with a plan of the Third World War, found in the archives, was shown. The complex was entered in the heritage register in 2016, and the route is being gradually extended.

Apart from the Underground City, the Coastal Defence Museum also runs visits at Gerhard Fort, and the wider context of the port fortifications is described in the entry on the Świnoujście Fortress.

Practical information

• Address: Wolińska 10, Świnoujście (Wolin island).
• Visits only with a guide, at set entry times that change according to the season. Check the current schedule and booking on the podziemne-miasto.pl website before your visit.
• The site's website states that dogs are admitted.