These days, the woodlands, meadows and lakes of Lithuania’s Zemaitija National park are a natural paradise. But deep in the forest, one of the Soviet Union’s first Cold War missile sites is a chilling reminder of Europe’s brush with the apocalypse.

From the surface the site, now a fascinating museum, looks like a UFO landing pad with the white domes of the silo lids gleaming in a clearing in the Plokstine Forest. What lies beneath is a sprawling underground bunker system whose business was killing.

Here’s my story published in The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age Traveller on February 10, 2020. You can also read it online at: https://www.traveller.com.au/lithuania-plokstine-beneath-paradise-a-chilling-reminder-of-europes-brush-with-the-apocalypse-h1levn

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