BUNKER DOWN
Inside Mussolini’s underground WW2 bunker built to house family beneath villa with 13ft thick concrete & gas-tight doors
Three bunkers were built underneath the 19th century villa - the last was never finished
SIX metres below a Roman palace sits an underground bunker built to protect fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
The anti-gas, double-steel doors of an 84-year-old slice of history are once again open to the public.
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Three bunkers were built at the sprawling 19th century Villa Torlonia - the private Rome residence of Mussolini from 1925-43 when he ruled over Italy with a brutal grip.
The home, built to be a palace, comes with a casino, several lakes, a tennis court, horse stables and multiple homes.
In 1940 Italy entered World War 2 and work immediately began to construct the first underground shelter to protect Mussolini and his family from wartime bombing.
The first was a converted old wine cellar in the garden under a small lake, located roughly 150m away from the living quarters.
To avoid the family having to dash to safety, a second bunker was built by wrapping an underground kitchen in reinforced concrete.
In some parts it was four metres thick and came with anti-gas doors and an air purification system.
However, as the war went on, Allied forces got closer and bombing campaigns stepped up, a third armoured bunker was planned.
Located outside the building of Casino Noble, it was six metres deep, 15 metres wide and built in a cross shape.
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Construction started in 1942, but Mussolini is said to have penned complaints that it was running behind schedule and over cost.
It was incomplete by the time he was arrested in 1943.
Who was Benito Mussolini?
Born on July 29, 1883, Benito Mussolini was the leader of the country’s National Fascist Party.
Known as "Il Duce" (The Leader), he became Prime Minister in 1922, rapidly consolidated his power to become a dictator in 1925 and ruled until 1943.
Following the Abyssinia Crisis in 1935-36, he invaded Ethiopia which was widely condemned by the Western Powers but he got the backing of Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler.
Hitler and Mussolini formed what was called the Rome-Berlin Axis and signed a treaty of cooperation.
On June 10, 1940 Italy joined the Second World War, on the side of Germany and passed race laws under which thousands of Jews were persecuted.
In October that year, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece although it was unsuccessful and the counter-offensive pushed the forces back to Albania.
Italy also suffered a humiliating defeat when it joined with Germany in launching an attack on the Soviet Union.
Mussolini also suffered a defeat when the Axis Powers were crushed in North Africa..
In July 1942 the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence in Mussolini and on July 25 the king dismissed him as head of the government.
He was held in custody until he was rescued by German troops.
By the time Allied bombings hit Rome in July 1943, the dictator was under Nazi protection and leading a puppet state in northern Italy.
Mussolini then tried to flee the country with his mistress Clara Petacci to Switzerland but both were captured by communist partisans and executed by firing squad.
His body was then taken to Milan and was hung upside down at a petrol station to publicly confirm his death.
He was later killed while fleeing Allied forces in April 1945, and his body strung up by the feet for public viewing in Milan.
Inside the bunker system are blast doors, ladders leading to emergency exits, rusting anti-gas contraptions, artwork and secret passageways.
A label air purifier was dated November 1940 in Roman numerals in keeping with Mussolini’s style of evoking the ancient Roman empire’s glory days as inspiration for his own rule.
Marco Placidi, president of non-profit organisation Underground Rome said: "With the fall of Fascism it was never fully completed so today we can see it the way it was left in the aftermath of the arrest of Mussolini."
Had it been completed, it would have been the most resistant air raid shelter in Italy dedicated to one family.
The bunker and the rest of Mussolini's luxurious villa and gardens was first opened up for tourists in 2006, but closed two years later.
It opened again in 2014 with more parts to explore after they were found down a secret wooden door.
At the time, Rome's department for culture said they hoped it would remind locals and tourists alike of "one of the darkest pages of our history".
Today, Villa Torlonia is a pine-and-palm-studded park where Romans jog, stroll, play soccer or dine at an outdoor restaurant.
Last October, Italian lawmakers backed a long-delayed project to build a Holocaust museum in parts of Mussolini's Villa Torlonia.
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It languished for years due to bureaucratic hurdles but also what critics see as a reluctance to examine the role of Italy’s fascist regime as a perpetrator of the Holocaust.
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