A bunker beneath a cemetery and a monument featuring a Serbian T-55 tank in Zadar, Croatia

Croatia is in a part of Europe that has been shaken by several bloody wars since the beginning of the 20th century.

A walk through Mostrar, a Bosnian city watered with the blood of Spanish soldiers
The armored train of Split, a relic of Croatia's war of independence

The country, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was deeply affected by the First World War. In April 1941, Germany and its allies Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The territory that is now Croatia was then divided between that kingdom and Italy. Dalmatia had belonged to the Republic of Venice since the Middle Ages, and there lies the ancient Zara, a city of 75,000 inhabitants that was once a colony of the Roman Empire. The city ended the Second World War as part of the Italian Social Republic, the short-lived fascist state founded by Mussolini in the north of the country when the Kingdom of Italy switched sides in 1943.

In 1947, Zara fell under the control of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the communist dictatorship led by Josip Broz Tito. After the expulsion of the Italian population, the city's name was changed to Zadar. During the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995), the city, with its large Croatian population, was bombed by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian militias, and was finally liberated by Croatian forces in 1993.

The YouTube channel Aventuras Entresierras (which I highly recommend you subscribe to) has published an interesting video showing two vestiges of Zadar's turbulent history. One of them is a rather atypical fortification due to its location, as it is situated beneath the Bokanjac cemetery: the old Italian underground fort C-42 Fratelli Croce, which I already mentioned here four years ago. In addition, in the video we can see an old Serbian T-55 tank, which was destroyed during the fighting in that area during the Croatian War (the video is in Spanish but has an English audio track, you can activate it in the player):

You can see some screenshots from this interesting video here, as a preview. Here we can see the entrance to Fort C-42 Fratelli Croce among the graves of the Bokanjac cemetery. The fort, built in the late 1930s and completed in August 1940, had four entrances in total. Currently, two of them are blocked.

Here we can see an image of the interior of Fort C-42 Fratelli Croce. In the video, we can see a very thorough exploration of the interior. It is a very large position, built 5 meters underground. Interestingly, 126 German soldiers are buried above the fort, who were captured by the Yugoslavs during World War II.

Here we see one of the fort's four steel cupolas. Today, only two remain. Each cupola was equipped with two 8mm FIAT Mod 14/35 machine guns, which could be fired from four embrasures with spherical shields. You can find more information about this fort here.

Finally, here we see the Serbian T-55 tank, preserved as a monument on Križ Hill, near Zadar, next to an old Italian bunker from the 1930s, the E-8. This tank was used by Serbian forces that attacked the city of Zadar during the Croatian War of Independence. In the video, you can see the marks indicating how it was destroyed. By the way, Bilbo the teddy bear was very excited about the dedication made by the video's author; he's already making plans to bring the tank to Vigo (I wonder where I'll put it). 😄