Map reveals countries with the most nuclear bunkers around Europe

Vladimir Putin’s bloodshed in Ukraine has put a new focus on the network of nuclear bunkers across Europe.

Images of Ukrainians hiding in Kyiv’s metro stations have forced other Europeans to consider where they would take shelter in case of another war.

Not since the end of the Cold War has the threat of a nuclear explosion on the continent ever felt so close.

Responding to the geopolitical context of 2024, some of the world’s richest people have invested in bunkers similar to the one in the Netflix movie ‘Leave the World Behind’.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg erected one in Hawaii. Kim Kardashian, Shaquille O’Neal and Tom Cruise are also said to have shelters or safe rooms.

It is rumoured that Bill Gates has bunkers under each of his homes. But what about the rest of us?

Metro.co.uk has created a map showing where some of the nuclear bunkers are located, according to Subterranea Britannica.

It is not somewhere you want to have to go, but here there are (in case of a catastrophe).

The UK

There are 276 nuclear bunkers dotted across the UK.

Most were built during the Cold War era, between the 1950s and the 1980s, when there were heightened tensions between the US and Nato, and the Soviet Union.

There are 14 in the centre of the capital and 47 in total in the Greater London area.

There are eight in Birmingham, five in Manchester, four in Liverpool and four in Preston.

In Edinburgh, there are seven, and three more just outside of Glasgow. Seven are based in Aberdeen area. Meanwhile, Wales has 11, while Northern Ireland has just three.

Subterranea Britannica also details the state of which some of the nuclear bunkers are in.

For example, the facility in Southwark Borough Control, located beneath a health centre at the junction of Peckham Road and Vestry Road.

After closure, the health centre was demolished in the late 1990s, but the bunker remains intact.

Germany

Germany has 19 bunkers altogether, with most located in and around Berlin and neighbouring cities.

Munich Central Station is also home to two civilian shelters which can accommodate more than 3,000 people.

After the war, one was used as accommodation for immigrant workers. Many of these were of Italian descent and so the area became known as ‘Little Italy’.

Sweden

Renowned for its comprehensive approach to civil defence, Sweden constructed a vast network of nuclear bunkers during the Cold War.

There are five in Stockholm and two more in the Härnösand municipality in case of a nuclear conflict.

Katarinaberget – or Katarina’s mountain – is the largest nuclear shelter in Sweden.

It is big enough for more than 20,000 people and has bunks for 5,000 spread across three floors.

Czechia

Deep below Hotel Jalta (now the Jalta Boutique Hotel) – built in the second part of the 1960s on Wenceslas Square in Prague – is a nuclear bunker.

The facility, which takes us part of the basement, has capacity to house around 150 people. Its walls are three metres thick and originally had an emergency exit ladder which emerged in the square in front of the hotel.

Czechia also has a second shelter near the border with Poland.

MORE : The best things to do in London this weekend

MORE : Shein’s London stock listing is bad news for all of us

MORE : Fate unknown – one year on from the Kakhovka dam collapse

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.