A subterranean military bunker in northern Italy that once served as a key Nato command-and-control centre is set to become a Cold War museum preserving the memory of the tensions that shaped generations living in the shadow of the nuclear threat.
Carved into a hillside near Lake Garda, close to the town of Affi outside Verona, the sprawling underground complex was built between 1960 and 1966 and codenamed West Star, a reference to the five-pointed red star that symbolised the Soviet Union. Designed for military communications specialists who would have coordinated Nato operations in the event of a nuclear attack, the 13,000 sq. m facility contained more than 100 specialised rooms linked by a 1km tunnel network.
The bunker was engineered to withstand nuclear, chemical and biological attacks and was equipped with filtration systems, protected shower areas, kitchens, water tanks and dormitories. It was designed to sustain 300 personnel for 30 days in the event of a nuclear emergency. As well as the war room and communications centres, the site contains a gym, a bar and mechanics’ workshops, where walls are still plastered with erotic posters left behind by military staff.
Command HQ
The bunker originally functioned as the central command post for coordinating Nato military operations across southern Europe and hosted exercises until 2004, before being decommissioned three years later. Italy’s defence ministry transferred ownership of the bunker to the municipality of Affi in 2018.
Plans to convert the complex into a museum gathered momentum this year after parliamentarians in Italy’s lower house approved a legislative amendment allocating €7m for its transformation by 2029. The funding proposal was introduced by Alessia Ambrosi, a representative of prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.
Marco Sega, the mayor of Affi, called the approval “a historic moment for our community” in a statement. “We now have a great responsibility: to make the best use of these resources and reopen the Nato base as soon as possible.”
An overlooked period of history
The announcement follows a major study led by the University of Florence that began in 2022. Researchers mapped the site, digitised technical documents detailing its construction and operation, and interviewed around two dozen former employees about life at the bunker. Michelangelo Pivetta, an architecture professor at the university who led the project, says the museum will offer an opportunity to revisit a period of history that is often overlooked.
“It is an opportunity to start speaking again about the Cold War—which is not spoken about enough today—in a historical sense,” he tells The Art Newspaper.
Part of the site is due to open to the public by the summer of next year, with annual visitor numbers expected to eventually reach 100,000. Visitors will pass through corridors leading to the infirmary, canteen and kitchens, while also gaining access to the bunker’s war room. The university has devised three separate routes: for families with children, school groups, and visitors familiar with Cold War history. Between 70% and 80% of the base will ultimately be accessible.
Internet’s precursor
Videos of interviews with former workers will be shown on digital totems installed at the museum, while exhibits will include original maps, massive electricity generators, evaporation towers used to collect and recycle humidity into water, and some of the most advanced computers of the 1960s and 70s. Pivetta says the bunker also contains Europe’s earliest ARPANET system, part of the pioneering computer network that predated the modern internet.
The maps, Pivetta says, “are special because they don’t make them like that anymore. They tell the story of a world that no longer exists.”
Italy already has several smaller Cold War museums, including the Bunker Museum in Dobbiaco, a former military bunker in the country’s far north that operated from 1951 to 1993 as part of a defensive network to counter a potential Soviet ground invasion. It opened as a museum in 2023.
The new museum at West Star will be managed by a newly created autonomous foundation and financed through a combination of public and private funding.
