Burnie Solino ... surrounded by frightening legends and novels

A Polish city that remained a secret Soviet nuclear weapons headquarters

• Adolf Hitler visited the city in 1938. From the source

• Today, Burnie Solino is an exciting travel destination for adventure seekers.

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• He still kept his smile inside the ghost town.

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Some call it a ghost town, because it has not appeared on any of the maps for decades. It was a secret location at the height of the Cold War that probably concealed a lethal arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of wiping out the major western cities.

Others refer to it as the Polish name Chernobyl, because the secrecy that has clouded it has given rise to mysteries and stories about disturbing radioactive elements similar to what happened at the ill-fated Ukrainian nuclear power plant, Chernobyl, whose surroundings were evacuated.

Today, however, Burnie Solino, in the West Pomerania region of northern Poland, is an exciting travel destination for adventure seekers looking to explore a beautiful natural area and a relatively unknown Soviet hotspot with a very dark past.

Reaching this city from Szczecin, the region's capital, requires a long journey through the rural lowlands of Poland, a region that also bears the legacy of the Cold War.

Thousands of military personnel

Last year, tens of thousands of soldiers poured into the region, taking advantage of the cover provided by the landscape of lakes and dense forests for the "Defenders of Europe 20" exercise, which is considered the largest military exercise on the continent in a quarter of a century.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this place was only available to those with a special pass.

The other Soviet officials pretended they knew nothing about him.

At the height of the Cold War, approximately 12,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in the Burnie Solino military complex.

They are part of the Northern Group of Forces present in Poland under the Warsaw Pact Agreement between the Soviet Union and the Eastern Socialist Republics.

Armed Forces Complex

"It was a huge site for a complex of forces and military facilities," says the owner of the local museum in Burnie Solino, Weslaw Bartoschek.

"After 1945, when the Soviets seized the place, the complex became part of the military plans of the Warsaw Pact, which included intensive training prepared by the ground and air forces to invade the West," he added.

"There was only one road leading here, and one railroad track ended up in the mysterious city behind the electrified walls," he continues.

And it seemed that the people who lived near Borneo Solino were too afraid to even mention this area.

Even before the Soviets arrived, the city was largely off-limits to the public.

Global struggle

When the region was part of Germany before World War II, the city was known as Grossborn, and is being used as a military base and training ground, and a picture of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, was taken while visiting the city in 1938. In 1939, Panzer forces stationed here launched under command General Heinz Guderian's attack on Poland, which led to a world conflict, and was later used to house prisoners of war.

Bartoschek says the area is popular with tourists during the summer season.

He likes to tell them the story of a mysterious tunnel running under the hospital, connecting a room used for autopsy to a railroad.

Researchers are still not sure what the tunnel is for.

Nowadays, Burnie Solino is a residential area.

After the Soviets left, the barracks were converted into apartments, and the railroad was removed and diverted into a major road.

“People came to Born from other parts of Poland because the apartments were so cheap,” says Bartoszik, and at the moment about 5,000 people live here.

Some important buildings have been restored and refurbished over the years, including a Soviet-era hospital that was intact and refurbished, and another building in the city center that is now a nursing home and a MS rehabilitation unit.

The city still has traces of the past.

Some buildings, like the grand structure that once housed the Veterans Club, are now cracked and in need of renovation, and the marble walls speak of their former glory.

The city hopes to attract investors by marketing itself as a destination for tourists looking to explore the surrounding wildlife and perhaps see a piece of Soviet history.

Pine and oak forests are filled with lakes, streams, rivers and ponds, ideal for cycling and hiking during the summer season, and rich in wildlife, including wild boars, deer and pheasants.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this place was only available to those who had a pass ... and Soviet officials pretended that they knew nothing about it.

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