Camouflaged in Denmark's remote Rold Forest, the REGAN Vest bunker was covertly constructed in the 1960s to shield the Danish monarch and hundreds of top officials in the event of a nuclear conflict. The vast complex is buried 197 feet underground and encompasses 232 rooms, including a radio station, a hospital, a cafeteria and a royal suite.

On standby until 2003 and decommissioned in 2012, REGAN Vest has been meticulously preserved for posterity and this remarkable time capsule is now open to the public.

Click or scroll on to tour this secretive Cold War shelter and uncover its remarkable history.

Deep within Denmark's biggest forest in North Jutland, the entrance to the bunker is hidden behind this unassuming country villa. As well as serving as a cover for the top-secret facility, the rustic house was home to the engineer responsible for looking after the bunker.

Work began on the complex in 1963 during the Cold War, not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon. The subterranean shelter was designed to accommodate the reigning monarch and high-level officials to ensure the continuity of government.

To those in the know, the bunker was called REGAN Vest, an acronym for 'REGeringsudflytnings ANlæg i VESTdanmark', which translates to 'government relocation facility in West Denmark'.

The Rold Forest was deemed the optimum location for the Cold War bunker since it's extremely secluded and situated far away enough from Denmark's southern and eastern borders to resist a Soviet invasion, according to YouTube channel Hidden in Sweden.

A staggering 3.2 million cubic feet of rock was blasted away to create the bunker. Work was carried out by local builders and fencing around the complex was minimal to play down the significance of the project. All in all, Denmark's best-kept secret was five years in the making, becoming operational in 1968.

The main entrance is well-camouflaged with overgrown vines. Interestingly, it was the only part of the facility staffed by an armed guard. Given its designation as a civilian installation, weapons were actually banned from the bunker itself. Now, let's step inside.

After passing through the entry tunnel via the blast wave trap, we come to the main access tunnel. Spanning an impressive 950 feet in length, it's encased in concrete sprayed over a robust steel frame. Features including the tunnel's ribbed design and the bend at the end were included to help absorb the pressure wave a nuclear detonation would generate.

In total, the complex has over 1.2 miles of tunnels, passages and shafts, together with 232 rooms. There are four separate entrances and exits, with one connecting more or less to the facility's helipad, which may have been designed to ferry Queen Margrethe II, Denmark's former monarch, and other VIPs to and from the site.

The access tunnel eventually arrives at the entryway to the actual bunker, which is on the left of the tunnel. To the right is the engine room.

Protected by steel pressure doors weighing 2.5 tonnes, the engine room powers the facility. It connects to an above-ground electricity substation concealed in a shed in the woodland and is kitted out with two backup diesel generators for use in times of war. The fumes produced by the generators would have been vented through two huge shafts, which were designed to cool the hot exhaust air to avoid any telltale heat signatures.

The 59,200-square-foot bunker has a curious design that's actually very sensible on closer inspection. It's made up of two hollow rings, each with two floors containing around 80 rooms apiece and bisected by connecting tunnels.

This round design has the advantage of requiring less excavation, as well as less concrete and steel than conventional rectangular bunker concepts. It's also better able to resist a nuclear shockwave.

This model of the bunker is on display in the Cold War museum's award-winning above-ground exhibition building.

The facility's second security checkpoint is located at the entrance of the inhabited portion of the bunker. Here, visitors were vetted for a second time to ensure they were cleared for entry. The keys to various rooms, safes and so on were stored in the secure space too.

Note the mid-century alarms and handsets, and that 1990s office phone. Unlike many other government bunkers, which were stripped of their contents, REGAN Vest retains its original interiors, making the facility all the more compelling.

Ring I is situated closest to the bunker's access tunnel. This photo is of the passageway that cuts through the ring.

The lower level of Ring I was set aside for ministerial offices, other workspaces and the facility's hospital room. The walls here are colour-coded green to distinguish the level from the other floors. Meanwhile, the upper story of Ring I contains the communications room, radio station, situation room and monarch's suite. This section is coloured-coded blue.

The radio station would have been used to record messages to the nation. Broadcasting and receiving signals, however, were performed in the radio bunker around 1.2 miles away. We'll explore this separate bunker a little later.

The bunker could accommodate up to 350 people and was set up to keep them safe for 10 days in the event of a nuclear attack. With space at a strict premium, only the monarch and Denmark's most important government, military and civil defence figures would be granted entry, along with support staff, several journalists and a priest, according to the BBC.

Had the unthinkable come to pass, government ministers and civil servants would have had to run what was left of Denmark from the facility. Consequently, each key ministry was allocated offices on the lower level of Ring I to provide some semblance of order. Here are the entrances to the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Peering into one of the offices on the level, the bunker's mid-century origins are all too apparent. The bunker is packed with Nordic design classics that would likely cost a fortune nowadays – these simple yet beautifully made pieces have certainly stood the test of time.

Pictured here are two red Kevi chairs by Danish architect Jørgen Rasmussen. Created in 1958, the design is a mid-century touchstone. The ash wood-topped writing bureau with black metal legs is of equally fine quality and typical of the desks that came out of Denmark's best furniture factories in the 1960s and 1970s.

The hospital ward is located at one end of the tunnel that bisects the lower floor of Ring I. According to YouTube channel Hidden in Sweden, the bunker's infirmary would have been staffed by two doctors and six nurses. In the event of a nuclear attack, adequate medical care would be crucial to safeguard the occupants' physical and mental health.

The medical facility had to be prepared to deal with potential casualties from a nuclear bomb and treat everything from injuries sustained in the blast to severe radiation sickness and post-traumatic stress.

Moving on, the upper floor of Ring I is our next port of call.

The situation room, REGAN Vest's nerve centre, takes pride of place on the upper level. This is where Denmark's government officials would have run the country from if the Cold War had turned hot. Retractable maps still hang on the walls, alongside a whiteboard for strategy planning.

Showcasing more classic Nordic furnishings, the room is peppered with Butterfly chairs by legendary Danish designer Arne Jacobsen, who created the iconic stackable chair in the 1950s for the Fritz Hansen furniture company.

Next on our tour is the monarch's suite. The rooms were initially designed for King Frederik IX and repurposed after his death in 1972 for his successor Queen Margrethe II, who incidentally abdicated the Danish throne in January 2024. Her Majesty is said to have visited the bunker and personally approved the paintings currently on display in the VIP suite.

This compact space would have served as the Queen's office and living room. Again, it features some sought-after Danish design classics. The armchair to the left appears to be a GE 265 from revered Danish furniture firm Getama. The two swivel office chairs were designed in the 1960s by Jacob Jensen for furniture manufacturers Labofa. Fittingly, all three chairs are upholstered in regal purple.

The monarch's office connects to the royal bedroom. While the twin room is remarkably pared back and unpretentious, it does feature sumptuous goose-down bedding from Nordisk Fjer, a venerable Danish company that was instrumental in popularising duvets in the UK and elsewhere.

The bedroom's decoration is strikingly spartan with little ornamentation aside from a picture of the Renaissance Jens Bang's House in Aalborg on one of the walls. However, it's one of the few carpeted spaces in the bunker, indicative of its important intended occupant. 

Pictured here is the royal suite's rather modest bathroom, which contains only the essentials. The monarch would have been the only occupant of the bunker to have her own private wash space.

Meanwhile, the facility's general sleeping quarters are located on the other side of the bunker in Ring II. Given space was extremely tight, the dorms would operate on a hot-bed system. In times of war, the bunker would be full to capacity and staff would work on a rotating shift basis. When one employee vacated a bed, another would take their place, hence the system's name.

Ring II was all about rest and recreation and its two levels are coloured-coded yellow and orange. As well as the bunker's dorms, the levels contain the kitchen, cafeteria and living spaces.

Ring II is also equipped with two emergency exits – a vertical laddered shaft with a lift system and a vertical escape tube called the Rocket. To use the tube, escapees would have to strap themselves into this cage. They'd then be winched up through the narrow, 197-foot shaft.

Situated on the upper floor of Ring II, the cafeteria is the biggest room in the bunker. The occupants of REGAN Vest could enjoy nutritious meals and good conversation in the semi-circular space, which was designed with relaxation in mind.

The inner wall is clad in wallpaper depicting a calming tropical jungle scene. Overhead, speakers would play birdsong from a cassette machine to help soothe frayed nerves.

As with other areas of the bunker, the cafeteria features beautifully crafted furnishings, including a number of 1960s Arne Jacobsen pieces. The black pendant cone lamps that hover over each table were created by iconic Danish lighting company Louis Poulsen. Meanwhile, the chairs are Jacobsen's celebrated Hammer design, which he dreamed up while working for Fritz Hansen.

The lounge is where the holed-up occupants of the bunker would have kicked back and relaxed. Residents would have been transported to a temperate forest thanks to another span of photorealistic wallpaper.

The sleek space is decked out with more Arne Jacobsen pendant cone lamps, as well as reclined Bachelor chairs by Danish designer Verner Panton, yet another luminary of the period.

Momentos from the past are scattered throughout the space, from shelves of videotapes to a vintage copy of the James Bond novel From Russia with Love.

If occupants needed to evacuate the shelter, the main route out was the 2,296-foot-long emergency exit tunnel. Dark and dank, it certainly doesn't look very hospitable these days, but this space and other parts of the bunker have turned out to be the perfect habitat for bats. In fact, six species of the flying mammals are said to occupy the complex, which closes in December and January during their hibernation.

The main emergency exit is accessed via a steep flight of concrete stairs at the end of the tunnel. It opens out into a secluded area of the forest, the wooden doors camouflaged among the dense tree trunks and overgrowth. 

Now, let's check out the structures that make up the wider complex, namely the radio bunker and the master machinist's house.

The radio bunker was used to send and receive messages and was operated remotely from the main bunker, according to YouTube channel Hidden in Sweden.

REGAN Vest had a skeleton staff during the years it was on standby. The team of personnel led by the chief engineer was required to maintain the bunker and keep it operational.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, REGAN Vest was only used for military practice drills. However, it remained on standby until 2003.

The radio bunker is accessed by a steep staircase. Though it wasn't staffed per se, engineers and other personnel would have visited periodically to carry out maintenance work.

Out of action from 2003, REGAN Vest was decommissioned in 2012 and the facility was declassified. Intriguingly, a book called Denmark's Deepest Secret, published in 2010, first revealed the existence of the bunker. The tome's authors, brothers Poul Holt Pedersen and Karsten Pedersen, claim its “huge success” prompted the Danish government to shutter the facility given the cat was finally out of the bag. 

The radio bunker is even more sparsely furnished than the main bunker, which makes sense since it wasn't staffed 24/7.

Following the bunker's final closure in 2012 and its designation as a protected site in 2014, a plan came together to transform the retired complex into an innovative museum telling Denmark's Cold War story. Spearheaded by Nordjyske Museer – North Jutland Historical Museum – the project was budgeted at $10.8 million (£8.5m) and funding was provided by the local and national governments as well as a range of organisations.

Extensive work was carried out over a decade to make the bunker safe and preserve its contents. An incredible 100,000 items were reportedly conserved. The project also involved the construction of an exhibition building. 

Yet the endeavour didn't all go quite to plan. The issue of the bats nesting in the bunker, combined with the COVID pandemic, delayed the opening of the museum and the launch date was pushed back from 2022 to 2023. But the attraction has been worth the wait. Among the many highlights is the recreated master machinist's house, pictured here. 

While the bunker has been frozen in time with its original contents remaining in situ, the interior of the master machinist's house is a recreation of how the property looked during the 1980s. The last master machinist reportedly moved out in 2010, when the complex was closed.

The property is packed with carefully curated vintage Danish furniture and nostalgic ornaments, as you can see from this photo of the living room. Wonderfully interactive, visitors can meet the master machinist's family via digital screens, listen to cassette tapes, play the classic video game Pong and even try on the fabulous 1980s clothes hanging in the wardrobes.

Like the other rooms in the house, this typical 1980s teen bedroom is a blast from the past. Its décor includes a red Jørgen Rasmussen Kevi chair, a red Luxo table lamp designed by Jac Jacobsen in 1937 and a 1970s day bed designed by Hans J Wegner for Danish furniture company Getama. The poster montage of classic pop and rock stars on the wall makes this a quintessentially 1980s interior. 

Since its opening in 2023, Cold War Museum REGAN Vest has been a resounding success. Only around 60,000 tickets to visit the bunker, exhibition building and surrounding structures are made available each year and they've reportedly been selling out within days of dropping.

Pictured here is the exhibition building. Inspired by the black boxes that conceal state secrets, the striking structure, designed by architecture firm AART, secured Denmark's Building of the Year 2023 award in the 'Open' category.

The REGAN Vest bunker is a striking example of the past brought artfully back to life. Shedding light on a secretive period of Denmark's history, this magnificent time capsule offers a compelling window into one of the most tumultuous and fascinating periods in history. 

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