a German reinforced concrete machine gun nest from World War II. (source: M. Sládok)
In October, an unusual find was reported in the Trenčín Region, western Slovakia: a German reinforced concrete machine gun nest from World War II, the Regional Monuments Board reported.
The object was found by a local farmer in the village of Kostolná-Záriečie. It got in the way when he was ploughing the field, thinking it was a rock.
The nest was already significantly damaged at discovery.
At an unknown time after the front moved, the upper part of the object, sticking out of the ground, was knocked off because it interfered with ploughing, and since the rest of the object remained below ground level, it was forgotten.
At the discovery site and in its immediate vicinity, preservationists conducted a survey with a metal detector with a negative result. This indicates that the nest was not actively used as defence against the advancing Soviet and Romanian armies.
Most numerous in Slovakia
Objects of this type are known under the names Kugelstand and Kugelbunker. They have the shape of a truncated sphere or sphere with a protruding cylindrical or funnel-shaped entrance. They were also produced in Slovakia in late 1944 and their production ended shortly before the end of the war.
Concrete was poured into wooden reusable forms, in which a bundled armature made of iron bars was inserted. Both basic shapes were produced in several variants. They served as covers and firing points for infantry, most often for machine gunners.
"Perhaps as many as 1,000 Kugelstands were scattered around Slovakia, making them the most numerous German fired reinforced concrete object in our country," reports the Slovak Monument Office.
Most were in Bratislava, declared a fortress, and on the fortress line stretching from Bratislava to Kysuce. After the war, a significant amount of them was destroyed, some remained in their original settlement, and some relocated and used for secondary purposes, e.g. used as flower pots, climbing frames in children's playgrounds or reservoirs.
In the Trenčín Region, at least three preserved Kugelstands have been known until now. The sites of several others were destroyed or moved to an unknown location.
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