More on Mussolini’s Unfinished Bunker

News March 25, 2013

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ROME, ITALY—Mussolini’s last wartime bunker could be opened to the public later this fall. The unfinished bunker was discovered in 2010 during routine maintenance work in the Palazzo Venezia, his headquarters. The unfinished bunker’s nine rooms made of reinforced concrete were entered through a small wooden trap door. “The structure is still solid, it probably would have withstood a bombardment, although it would have depended on the force of the explosion. It was certainly well hidden,” said architect Carlo Serafini. Winston Churchill and his Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden were reluctant to bomb Mussolini’s headquarters, however, in part because the Palazzo Venezia is located near the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Palatine Hill.

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