The galleries of Monte Soratte, or more commonly Sorarette bunkerare considered one of the most impressive military engineering works in Europe. It is a complex of anti -aircraft tunnel dug in Mount Sorarette in the municipality of Sant’Orte, in the province of Rome. Wanted from Benito Mussoliniwere built between the 1937 and the beginning of the 1940s to host Italian political and military authorities in the event that any aerial bombings during a conflict had made their stay impossible in Rome impossible. Between 1943 and 1944, after the Nazi occupation of the capital, for a few months they became the headquarters of the command of German troops in Italy. In the 1960s, NATO and the Italian Armed Forces transformed a stretch of the galleries into a anti -antiomic tunnel (without ever completing the works 100%), which should have accepted the President of the Republic and the government in the event of nuclear war. At the end of the Cold War, the tunnel lost its function and today is a museum exposure open to the public.
Because the Sorarette galleries were built during fascism: history
The construction of the tunnels of Monte Sorarette had Beginning in 1937 By decision of Benito Mussolini. To understand why they were built, the context must be considered. In Europe, international relations were strongly deteriorated, fascist Italy had linked to Nazi Germany and the Possibility that a war burst Against France and the United Kingdom it appeared more and more concrete (it would actually break out, as we know, in 1939). It was therefore necessary to prepare.
One of the most felt needs was to protect themselves from air attacks. The progress made by the Air Force feared that the future war would entail heavy bombings on cities. All European countries, therefore, worried about how to cope with air raids and, more specifically, to prepare a safe place from which the political and military authorities could have continued to direct the operations if their institutional offices had been destroyed. In case of war, in fact, it is essential to ensure that the command chain It does not undergo interruptions.
The construction of the Galleries of Monte Soratte
At the end of the 1930s, the fascist regime decided to build galleries to host, in case of need, the highest charges of the state. The works began In 1937 on Mount Sorarettea mountain 691 meters above sea level, located in the municipality of Sant’Oreste, in the province of Rome. The site was chosen for its proximity to the capital, since it would have been easily achieved by the authorities in the event of urgent need.
The excavation works of the galleries, directed by the military genius, were performed by the Giovanni Perrucchetti company of Rome. The existence of the refuge was kept secret, but the works could not be hidden, given the great influx of workers, and therefore the news was disclosed according to which the galleries would have hosted with arms factoriesso much so that they became known as “protected workshops of the Duce”. Mussolini personally visited the construction site in October 1940, after Italy had entered the Second World War. The works were interrupted on July 25, 1943, when the fascist regime ceased to exist and Mussolini was replaced by the guidance of the government by Pietro Badoglio, without the galleries having ever been used. Most of the works, however, had already been completed: it had been dug An area of 25,000 square meters And the internal fixtures had been mounted.
The Nazi occupation of the galleries
As we know, on 8 September 1943 the Italian government made it known that it has signed a Armistice with the Anglo -Americansthat is, to have surrendered. The Wehrmacht (German army) occupied the central-northern part of the peninsula, including the city of Rome, which remained in its hands from September 1943 to June 1944.
The commander in chief of the German troops in Italy, Albert Kesserlinghe decided to place his supreme command in the galleries. For ten months, therefore, Kesserling directed the Wehrmacht operations from Mount Sorarette. The galleries, moreover, proved to resist the bombings: on May 12, 1944 they were attacked by two flocks of American planes B-17 Flying Fortresswho wanted to eliminate the German locations placed inside, but, despite having been affected by a large number of bombs, they managed to hold to the impact. The attack damned only the external part of the structure.
The Nazis abandoned the galleries in early June 1944, just before Rome was freed by the Anglo -American ones. Before leaving the Sorarette, Kesserling gave order to undermine the inputs and internal passages, but the galleries they did not collapse. According to a legend, the Germans had also hidden a part of the site on the sitegold subtracted from the Bank of Italy, who has never been found. The legend has never found confirmation.
The anti -dithomic bunker during the Cold War
At the end of the Second World War, the Sorarette galleries were abandoned for a few years and later, from 1952 to the early 1960s, they were used by the Italian army as Explosive deposit.
In the context of the Cold War, however, the galleries lent themselves to be used for other functions. The comparison between the USA and the USSR, in fact, had caused the fear that a global nuclear war could burst and in many countries were built Anti -antiomic shelterswhich should not only resist explosions, but also preserve the environment from the radioactive contamination caused by bombs.
In some cases, simple citizens also equipped themselves with shelters. The governments of many countries also prepared Anti -antiomic shelters To host political and military authorities. In Italy, it was decided to predict them in the Sorarette galleries, a stretch of which he was transformed into an anti -Tomic tunnel which, in the event of war, would have hosted the President of the Republic and the Government. The works began in 1963 and ended In 1967 (without however 100%completed). The tunnel extended overall for About 1.3 km And he was dug at a depth between 250 and 300 meters. The structure, of course, was secret: the population knew of the existence of the galleries, but ignored that an anti -antiomic tunnel had been prepared inside them.
Fortunately, the nuclear war has never broken out and the Sorarette bunker never had to host the Italian political authorities. However, in the years of the Cold War it was held in full efficiency and most likely the armed forces organized exercises to be able to put it into operation quickly in case of conflict.
The Sorarette galleries today
At the end of the Cold War, the danger of the “total” nuclear war was lost, the Galleries of Mount Sorarette were gradually abandoned. In the 2000s, the Ministry of Defense officially abandoned the area, which returned In the availability of the Municipality of Sant’Orete, And a group of volunteers, gathered in the “Sorarette Bunker” association, began to deal with the enhancement of the site. In 2013, in addition, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has implanted in the galleries a seismic station integrated into the national detection network.
Today the galleries, thanks to the work of the Sorarette bunker association, are a museum exhibition open to the public, which can be visited by reservation. The bunker is twinned with the Thunder basea missile base located in the municipality of Folgaria, in the province of Trento, which was active between the 60s and 70s.
