Guided Tour of the Bunker of Mussolini in Villa Torlonia (in ENGLISH)
SITE CLOSED TO PUBLIC
When the threat of air raids on the Capital became more real, Mussolini, who realised how destructive the new Anglo-American bombers could be, insisted on greater security for himself and the Royal Family.
It was in this context that, during the war, between 1940 and 1943, three underground structures were built in Villa Torlonia - where Mussolini and his family lived - in order to guarantee shelter to the Mussolini family in the event of air raids. These consisted of two air raid shelters, which were built respectively in 1940 and 1941, and a proper bunker. The construction of the bunker began in 1942 when Mussolini decided to equip the Villa with a modern and avant-garde structure when he realized that the two air raid shelters could not give him and his family sufficient protection from the Ally’s powerful bombs.
The order in which we will visit the bunker and the air raid shelters will not, for logistic reasons, be in the order that they were built. Our first visit will be to the first air raid shelter which was built in 1940, we will then proceed to the cylindrical bunker which was built in 1942 and we will finish our tour in the shelter underneath the Casino Nobile, the second to be built, in 1941.
