Šiauliai (Zapalskiai) nuclear arsenal - nuclear warhead storage facility
Infrastructure

A little further from the city of Šiauliai, in the village of Zapalskiai, there is a surviving underground missile base and rocket fuel storage facility of the USSR army.

In 1955, the construction of the Zapalskiai military base, often called the Šiauliai Nuclear Arsenal or officially the 1893rd PRTB, began around 1960. The base had strategic importance - it was connected to the Zokniai military airport by a concrete road, along which the transported nuclear missile warheads were distributed throughout the Lithuanian SSR.

The Zapalskiai nuclear arsenal was carefully guarded - it was surrounded by several rings of barbed wire fences, and the territory was divided into two perimeters. The first perimeter was intended for barracks, administrative premises and a technical unit, and the second was of a combat nature, in which a production building, believed to be related to the maintenance of electrical equipment, has survived.

The underground storage facility housed nuclear warheads, protected by air conditioning and ventilation systems powered by powerful diesel generators. This equipment was to protect the weapons not only from possible enemy attacks, but also from external environmental factors. This base was one of two nuclear weapons storage facilities in Lithuania – the other such facility was in Kėdainiai.