Bunker Soratte

In 1937, at the behest of Benito Mussolini, the construction of numerous tunnels within the mountain was started on Monte Soratte, given its proximity to the capital, which should have served as an air-raid shelter for the high posts of the Italian Army, although in the guise of the Breda arms factory: the so-called "protected workshops of the Duce".

The works were carried out under the direction of the Military Engineers of Rome and, even today, this underground labyrinth is one of the largest and most impressive military engineering works in Europe (about 4 km long: a real underground city).

During the Second World War, particularly in September 1943, the "Supreme Command of the South" of the German occupation forces in Italy, led by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, settled on the Soratte.

For a period of about ten months, the tunnels lent themselves as a valid secret refuge for Nazi troops and resisted the heavy bombing of May 12, 1944, carried out by two flocks of B-17 allies, who left specifically from Foggia to destroy the German headquarters. to the Soratte.

It would seem that, before leaving the area, Field Marshal gave orders to mine and set fire to the whole underground complex and to bury some boxes containing part of the gold stolen from the Bank of Italy: they have never been found.

For years, after the flight of German troops after the bombing, the complex experienced periods of total abandonment.

It was only in 1967, during the years of the Cold War, that, under the aegis of NATO, a section of the tunnels was modified, which assumed the appearance of an anti-atomic bunker, which would have hosted the Italian government and the president of the republic in the event of an atomic attack on the capital.

The works, only partially completed, continued until 1972, when, for still uncertain reasons, they were abruptly interrupted.

The area, for some years, has been repurchased by the Municipality of Sant’Oreste and is the subject of a project to recover the former barracks and to set up a widespread historical museum, called "Path of memory".