The Bunker and the Air-raid Shelters in the Villa Torlonia

Reopened in April 2024 at the end of a restoration project, the bunker receives the public with a new exhibition documenting the life of Mussolini and his family in Villa Torlonia and offers the possibility for visitors through an immersive multimedia experience to recall the dramatic moments of an air raid.

Mussolini at Villa Torlonia

Il legame di Benito Mussolini con Villa Torlonia ebbe inizio il 22 luglio del 1925, quando gli venne concessa su invito del principe Giovanni Torlonia jr., ultimo erede del ramo discendente da Alessandro. Inizialmente il Duce utilizzò la villa solo per qualche incontro ufficiale; è solo nel 1929 che vi si trasferì con la moglie Rachele e i figli.

The relationship between Benito Mussolini and the Villa Torlonia started on 22 July 1925, when it was conceded to him at the invitation of the Prince Giovanni Torlonia jr., the last descendant of the Alexander branch. At the beginning, the Duce only used the villa for a few official meetings; it was only in 1929 that he moved there with his wife Rachele and their children.

The building chosen for the residence was the Casino Nobile, which also functioned as a reception venue, welcoming guests on the ground floor, and, in the surrounding square, official meetings, fencing training, parades and receptions. Benito and Rachele's private flats were on the first floor, while the ballroom was often used as a hall for private film screenings.

The Bacchus Room, on the other hand, was called the Music Room because of the large piano often played by the young Romano Mussolini.
Other buildings, such as the Villino Medievale and the Casino dei Principi, were used as residences for his son Vittorio and the widow of his son Bruno and his family, respectively.

The construction of the first shelters

With the beginning of the Second World War and the first bombing raids on Italy, it became necessary to provide for Mussolini's safety even inside Villa Torlonia.
The first room identified as a refuge was an underground cellar under the small lake known as ‘del Fucino’, built by the Torlonia family in the 19th century by exploiting in all probability a pre-existing cemetery area, and accessed through a door opposite the east entrance to the theatre.

At the end of 1940, the cellar (60 metres long and 5 metres wide) was equipped with gas doors, an air filtering and regeneration system, electric lighting and other facilities to make the place more comfortable and suitable for prolonged stops.
However, it was soon realised that the uncovered distance between the Casino Nobile and the hut (about 150 metres) was a weak point. In addition, the small lake underneath was an easy target for bombardment.

Thus, in 1941 it was decided to exploit a basement room of the Casino Nobile, originally used as a wash-house. Located immediately underneath the Ballroom, it was reinforced with a layer of reinforced concrete about 120 cm thick, equipped with gas-proof doors, and a purification and air exchange system.

The construction of the bunker

Even this second solution, however, was judged inadequate to resist the Allies' bombs. Mussolini therefore entrusted the National Fire Brigade Corps with the construction of a real anti-aircraft bunker under the side yard of the Casino Nobile, equipped with more advanced materials and techniques. Work began in December 1942 for a planned sum of 240,000 lire, which ended up being doubled: in fact, it became necessary to deepen the excavation for the foundations and to dismantle a pre-existing underground corridor that connected the Tribuna with Fontana with a ‘secret’ room, wanted by Alessandro Torlonia.

The new bunker was excavated to a depth of about 6.50 metres, outside the foundations of the Casino Nobile, but could be accessed directly from the latter's basement.

Constructed in a cylinder shape and protected by a 4-metre concrete wall, the bunker was composed of several compartments in a cross-shaped development with two emergency exits: one on the Casino's side forecourt, and another inside the Tribuna con Fontana, which was reached after walking along an underground corridor.

Mussolini, however, never had the chance to use the bunker: when he was deposed on 25 July 1943, the work was not yet finished. However, the structure served as a shelter for the inhabitants of the Villa and the neighbouring district during the German occupation.

The modern layout of the bunker

The bunker offers a visit in which the historical-documentary approach, which refers to the Rome of the Second World War and Mussolini's choice to make the Villa his residence in the city, is accompanied by an immersive experience, with the intention of giving a sense of what it is like to find oneself in an underground shelter during an air raid.

The exhibition thus begins with a ‘historical’ part, documenting the life of Mussolini and his family in the Villa, the construction and remodelling of the anti-aircraft bunker, and the Allied bombings that hit Rome from 1943.

This is followed by three rooms featuring a multimedia setting, with synchronised projections and sound spatialisation that draw a single scenario, reconstructing small episodes of what life must have been like in an anti-aircraft shelter.

From one of the rooms, a steep staircase leads to the last stage of the exhibition route: the bunker proper.

The possibility of imagining the sensations of being in the middle of an air raid is enhanced with a rather realistic simulation that adds ground vibrations, realised with 10 transducers placed under the floorboards, to the sound part (sirens, approaching planes, detonations).

The exit from the bunker leads directly into the gardens of Villa Torlonia.