We’ve got a Bomb Shelter in the bathroom Darling

In 1943 the Luftwaffe bombed Samos. The town was defenceless against such attack and had little in the way of anti aircraft weaponry. Fortunately the town only suffered a couple of days in this manner before the Germans re-captured the island.

The reason for the mini history lesson is that we discovered a bomb shelter inside the house. Yes, inside the house. When we first viewed the house our agent could not fully open the door to a back room and assumed that there was a large water tank or similar inside. What we found when we finally moved in and managed to take the door off was a complete stone structure built inside an already stone built house. A very comprehensive piece of architectural protection.

But the discovery has raised more questions than answers so far. Not one of the builders we have dealt with have encountered such a structure and we are all guessing that it was built in response to the war time events. The household was certainly wealthy enough at the time to build it but it must have been done with immediate haste after the events (or even before) which suggests the house may have had some more importance at that time than other houses in the area. All this is conjecture of course and as we could not see an imminent air strike we decided to pull it down.

If possible.

Which it was as soon as we came across Han, the Gargantuan Man from Afghanistan. This incredible force of nature only needed one decent sized hammer drill and an endless supply of water and weed and the task was completed within two days. 155 rubble bags were filled in those two days and that doesn’t account for the fact that we have kept all the stone which will come in handy one day. We are now left with a multi level back room which will end up as a unique multi level bathroom.