At the Tumbe Kafe site in Bitola, a former barracks, the number of unexploded ordnance found from World War I reached an astonishing 1,443 - and that on a single plot.

A pyrotechnician from Bitola's Directorate for Protection and Rescue reported the discovery of a large amount of explosive devices on Wednesday. After a precise count, the figure is chilling: 540 mortar shells, 371 hand grenades and 532 trench-mortar rounds - all from World War I. The devices were found and safely removed.

Bitola and its region are among the most densely „mined" areas from the Great War in the Balkans - the front line ran right through here more than a century ago. But a figure of 1,443 devices on one single plot is a reminder that a war which ended three generations ago still lies buried beneath our feet.

Every find like this is both a small history lesson and a real safety risk. These devices are not harmless museum exhibits - even after a hundred years, old explosives can kill. That's why the work of the pyrotechnicians, which rarely makes the headlines, is one of those quiet professions that literally guard us from a past that refuses to stay buried.