West Star Cold War bunker

Department of Architecture of the University of Florence (prof. Michelangelo Pivetta)

Photographed by Fabio Mantovani

Dug into the belly of Monte Moscal, spread over an area of about 13,000 square meters and able to accommodate up to 500 people in the event of war, the anti-atomic bunker NATO of Affi, Verona – Italy, code name “West Star”, represents a one-of-a-kind artifact, by extension, and technical expression of its time.
The base, built in the first half of the 1960s, entered service in July 1966. During the Cold War, West Star was the main telecommunications center for the command and control of the forces of the Atlantic Alliance deployed in the north-eastern territory. Object of the highest level of secrecy (NATO COSMIC) the bunker was surrounded by a dense mystery until the beginning of this century. At the end of 2006, after forty years service, the bunker was decommissioned and in 2018 the property passed entirely to the Municipality of Affi.
Thanks to the collaboration between the Municipality of Affi and the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence (prof. Michelangelo Pivetta), the bunker is officially at the center of a new rehabilitation and musealization cultural and architecture design project.