Many of these underground shelters were built in the war period especially in the frontier areas. However, in the 1950s during the Cold War the underground shelters started to rise even in the towns as fallout shelters. In the territory of the capital of Prague the shelters rank among the essential types of measures of survival in emergency situations. The shelters are administrated by Hasicský záchranný sbor (Fire & Rescue Service) of the capital of Prague. Not everybody knows that there are more than eight hundred permanent underground shelters with the total capacity 575 000 people there.
Bezovka fallout shelter is an underground complex below Parukárka Hill. It was carried out between 1950 -1955 below Vrch svatého Kríže (Holy Cross Hill). The shelter was hollowed into rock with help of heavy technics. It was made of ferroconcrete construction which is in places even three meters thick. The underground areas, which can contain more than two thousand people, can be entered by five entrances. Three of them are situated in Prokopova street, the remaining two in Ceskobratrská street. The entrances are protected by huge metal doors, each weighting around four tons.
The main part of the shelter is composed of three plus three corridors constructed at right angles to each other. The complex also incorporates two three-metre high ventilation towers rising above the surface of the nearby Holy Cross Hill. The underground shelter Bezovka is unique not only for its own sanitary system but also for its own source of electricity and a big water tank. There is also an emergency broadcast studio of the Czech Radiocommunications to be found here.
The present:
Some of the underground shelter sections are open to the public these days such as storage areas, artificial climbing walls or a music club which is located in the top storey of the shelter.
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