In one major city discovered dungeons of unknown purpose! A network of ancient underground structures permeates one of the courtyards of the house in the city center! "that's what a headline in a yellow newspaper might sound like.
Yes, at first glance they can be mistaken for some tunnels or underground dwellings of some mythical creatures. These huge holes, dug in the slope, are hidden in a thicket of bushes, and you can only see them if you directly stumble upon them. Their interior is hidden from the outside world by a square opening with a hatch on which a lock hangs. Near the tightly closed hatches sticking out of the pipe, apparently the vent. Yes, strange structures and also in the historical center of the city. Maybe they are of mythical origin, but the person clearly also had a hand in them
Yes, at first glance they can be mistaken for some tunnels or underground dwellings of some mythical creatures. These huge holes, dug in the slope, are hidden in a thicket of bushes, and you can only see them if you directly stumble upon them. Their interior is hidden from the outside world by a square opening with a hatch on which a lock hangs. Near the tightly closed hatches sticking out of the pipe, apparently the vent. Yes, strange structures and also in the historical center of the city. They may be of mythical origin, but the man clearly had a hand in them, too.
Someone will think that these are bomb shelters and will be wrong. Maybe some military structures, it is likely that abandoned? Also no.
The answer is much more prosaic. This is popularly called a basement or storeroom. What is it and what are they for, these basements-storerooms?
Let's go back more than 70 years. The city where one of the most powerful German armies clanked through The II World War is in ruins. But the war has passed and returning to peaceful life, the city is gradually rising from the ashes. During the fighting, more than 90% of the city's residents were killed or left. But this is a major industrial center, an important transport hub, and its restoration is a strategic issue and was not discussed. It was restored by captured soldiers of the German armies and the new population of the city, who arrived from the region and from neighboring regions. Let me remind you that the city is in ruins, and people need somewhere to live. And the first post-war mass housing was...barracks. Yes, ordinary wooden barracks.
And this is after the constructivism of the 30s, of which, by the way, there is little left after the war!
A barrack is a structure designed for a comfortable life. And since they served as the only housing for the new residents of the newly born city, the question of food storage became acute. At that time, of course, there was no question of any refrigerators. Yes, as for the refrigerators, many barracks didn't even have electricity. And in summer, in those places, the temperature in the shade reached 40°C. As I have already said, the basis of the new population of the newborn, or rather the reborn city, was made up of villagers who were unassuming to living conditions. And it was they who came up with the idea of arranging cellars-storerooms in the courtyards of these barracks, just as it is implemented in the villages. Digging in the basement of the existing wooden barracks was very problematic. And in the yard - please! Cellars or storerooms could be individual, where the entrance from the day surface was separate, or they could be with one entrance for everyone and a long common corridor, from which rooms-storerooms diverged in different directions, each behind its own door.
Underground, the temperature is relatively constant, which allowed storing food all year round, mainly vegetables. Well, twists for the winter.
All the advantages of such basements-storerooms are obvious. This is the proximity to housing, and the extreme simplicity of structures, and accessibility in terms of building materials (because construction was carried out everywhere).
But from the obvious disadvantages of structures, it should be noted the low quality of execution, because they built households.water and ... water. Yes, it was underground and surface (atmospheric) water that was the main problem of cellars-storerooms. And if it was still possible to fight with atmospheric moisture, then underground water was invincible. With the construction of new buildings and utilities around the barracks, the regime of underground water changed. Where there was no water, it appeared, and where there was - its level rose. In some places, it was possible to preserve the cellars-storerooms by raising the floor level. You could be bent over in them. But this only partially solved the problem, because with water came dampness, which is harmful to food. And in the end, such basements had to be abandoned.
Many of these storerooms have been preserved to this day. Some of them are in working order, some of them have only a hatch in the ground.
By the way, somewhere the entrance to the basement-storeroom looks different.
The city was rebuilt and expanded. People from the barracks were moved to new apartments with all amenities, and new houses were built on the site of their old barracks to move residents from other barracks to them. And so gradually the cellars-storerooms, which were not demolished in the process of development, and were surrounded first by "stalinok", and then "Khrushchev".
And since the underground buildings were not documented in any way, when the old owners moved to new apartments, the vacant cellars-storerooms were occupied by new residents. And some of them still use them. By the way, some are still not documented in any way.