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What is the Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs?:
Another interesting day trip during our visit to Lavtia was to the Padomju Selpenais Bunkers in nearby Ligatne, a town on the Gauja River. Shown in the banner above is the
Ligatne Rehabilitation Centre or"health spa" as it was known in Soviet Cold War Lingo. The bunker was apparently planned as early as the late 1960s, but only became operational in the early 1980s. It lies nine metres (30 feet) under ground – or rather under the buildings of the Rehabilitation Centre, and is vast--over 2000 square meters. This extremely secret bunker was one of the most important facilities in Soviet Latvia in the event of a nuclear attack. Under the code name of “Rest Home,”it would have been the place where Soviet Latvian government officials would have gone in the event of an attack, and apparently it was capable of housing every communist party member. The entire complex was designed to be self-sustaining, a place where the Party faithful could ride out nuclear winter.  Its status as a secret location was lifted only in 2003. The underground installation has been fully preserved.


A Tour of the
the Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs:
Owing to the fact that a photo by photo tour along with text would be rather lengthy, along with the idea that there are no comprehensive video tours of the site on YouTube (and precious few video snippets in English), we have arranged our photos into a sequential video that explains the elements of the bunker covered on the guided tour. The existence of the bunker underscores how seriously the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact members took the threat of nuclear war.

Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs





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