Andersgrotta, Kirkenes

Andersgrotta - darkometer rating : 4 - Kind of a cross between a cave and an underground bunker in Kirkenes , northern Norway . It was built/dug during the occupation of the country by Germany during WWII and used for the protection of the local population in the countless air raids that more or less destroyed the town in the war until it was liberated by the Soviets . Today you can visit parts of the tunnel system and view a short film about the war history of Kirkenes. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: for general background info about Kirkenes and its role in WWII see its own entry here . The name may suggest a natural cave ('grotta' in Norwegian), but it is in fact an artificial tunnel system hewn into the rock under Kirkenes and further fortified with reinforced-concrete girders and entrances. It was built (or rather commissioned) by the Germans in 1941 during the occupation of Norway in WWII quite probably using POW labour. Apart from storage and military protection this underground system proved vital for the local populace in 1944 when Kirkenes became the target of hundreds of Allied (mainly Soviet ) air raids. This was because Kirkenes was a kind-of staging post for Nazi Germany 's ambitions to capture Murmansk over the border in Russia to cut off the vital Atlantic Convoy supply route of the Allies. In the end, most of the town was destroyed in those air raids and almost everything that was still left standing was then burned down by the retreating German troops as part of their usual scorched earth policy. Only a couple of old houses survived. One of them can be found just down the road from the Andersgrotta entrance up Presteveien. Everything else was rebuilt after the war.