8 May 2013 Mussolini's secret bunker
Categories: Second World War , Calendar , Nálezy nejenom s detektorem v západní Evropě
Eight years ago, the public was able to see Benito Mussolini's secret bunker for the first time, at least through photographs. During the Second World War, he had it built under his Rome headquarters in the Palazzo Venezia.
Mussolini ordered the construction of the bunker in late 1942 out of fear of mounting Allied attacks. This was at a time when workers were completing a much more elaborate shelter under his private Roman residence, Villa Torlonia.
Although the ventilation system is functional, the dirt floors and unfinished electrical and drainage networks show that the bunker was not actually finished. The eighty-square-metre reinforced concrete bunker lies between fifteen and twenty metres below ground level.
The bunker was discovered in 2010 during maintenance work on the local building. Officials came across a wooden hatch, under which was a brick staircase leading to the bunker with nine rooms. Just at the foot of the staircase is a small room that bears traces of ancient buildings. There are brick walls, arched structures covered with plaster and a small part of a mosaic.
We also wrote about the bunker here:
https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/home/archeologicke-zpravy-nejen-pro-hledace-s-detektory-kovu-4-3-17-3-2013-5903
To the right of the staircase, a short corridor opens up, partly built of reinforced concrete. The bunker has a square plan divided into nine regular squares. The rooms are approximately the same size, at roughly nine square metres. They are probably connected by asbestos cement pipes for ventilation.
It must also be clear to anyone at first glance that the walls have not been completed, from which, for example, reinforcing bars of reinforced concrete are sticking out. Even the doors have not been installed. Inside the bunker there are also two large recesses, which were perhaps intended to house safes. Experts also say that the reinforced concrete structure itself is poorly constructed.
"When we saw the tons of concrete, it was immediately clear that we had discovered Mussolini's twelfth bunker," said archaeologist Carlo Serafini.
In 2014, the aforementioned shelter under the Villa Torloni was opened to the public, and the authorities had the same intentions with the newly discovered bunker in the Palazzo Venezia.
Sources: www.wantedinrome.com, www.romasotterranea.it, www.huffpost.com
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