Mussolini’s Secret Bunker Discovered

A walkthrough of the bunker. For a translation, see The History Blog.

Workers recently discovered an unfinished bunker built by WWII Italian dictator Mussolini. It is inside the Palazzo Venezia, a 15th century palace which Mussolini used as his offices. It is the 12th bunker discovered, and as it is unfinished, it will probably be the last. Workers in the place were cleaning a room to prepare it for public display, when they discovered a wooden trap door in the floor. Going down, they found an amazing nine room compound underneath the building. The rooms had thick concrete walls to protect from dangers of a bombardment. It was never finished, as shown by the unconnected sewage and electric systems, and an incomplete escape route.

It did not take a bombardment to bring down Mussolini. After Axis forces were defeated, he was dismissed from the government and arrested. He was rescued by Hitler’s Germans, and for two years he maintained a puppet government. In 1945, while trying to escape the country in disguise, he was captured by communists. He was shot the next day, on April 27, 1945.