Mussolini planned to build a bunker in front of the Casino Nobile, one of the buildings attached to his Roman residence. The work, begun in December 1942, will never be completed.
First opened in 2006, the bunker was closed two years later, before experiencing temporary reopenings over the years. In 2021, it was closed to visitors again due to the Covid-19 crisis and associated health measures. It has just reopened its doors. 50-minute guided tours, available in Italian, English or French, are also organized in the underground passageways and Mussolini's unfinished bunker. This reopening comes as Rome will finally have its own Holocaust museum, built on land adjoining the Villa Torlonia park. More than 1000 Jewish people were sent to Auschwitz camp during the roundup of Jews in October 1943 in the Italian capital. The far-right government of Georgia Meloni gave the green light to carry out such a project in mid-March. On October 16, 1943, German troops, supported by officials of Mussolini's fascist regime, carried out a roundup in the former ghetto of Rome.