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Jan 23, 2017 · These secret gems can add an extra layer of exploration to checklist destinations like Times Square or the Eiffel Tower—if you know where to find them.
- The Colosseum
- The Vatican in Rome
- Corrie Ten Boom of Haarlem
- Tunnel from The Basement of The White House
- Vasari Corridor
- The Statue of Liberty
- Church of England
The Flavian Amphitheatre, also known as the Colosseum, in Rome, Italy has one of the largest complexes of tunnels ever built. During performances, the underground chambers, or hypogeum – derived from the ancient Greek “hupogeios” meaning underground – would have been a hive of activity. Not only a space for gladiators to wait for their turn in the ...
The Vatican in Rome, the residence of the Pope, has a hollow wall that was built in 1277. Behind the wall is a tunnel running from the papal apartments to the tomb of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the Castel Sant Angelo, which was turned into a fortress in the Middle Ages. Many Popes used the passage to escape to safety, and in 1527, it probably saved...
Corrie ten Boom of Haarlem in the Netherlands and her family became involved in the Dutch underground resistance during the years of the Holocaust. The family were watchmakers and lived in apartments above their store. In the 1940s they had a secret room built behind a false wall inside Corrie’s bedroom at her request. This room was part of the net...
During World War II, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President of the United States, a tunnel from the basement of the White House that leads to the National Treasury was adapted to lead to a secret bomb shelter built to protect the President. When Roosevelt saw the crudely put together room, he refused to ever come back. Theoretically, the tunn...
In 1564, architect, painter, and author Giorgio Vasari built the Vasari Corridor to link the Pitti Palace and the offices of Francesco I de’ Medici, second Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Florence, Italy. The corridor, about a half mile in length, is an enclosed walkway with arched windows and rich wooden floors. It is decorated with Cardinal Leopoldo de...
The Statue of Liberty, with the face of the sculptor’s mother, has looked out over New York Harbor since 1886 when she was presented as a gift from the people of France. The 305-foot hollow, copper statue was transported from France on the French frigate Iserein 350 pieces, and took four months to reassemble. In 1933, Lady Liberty was put into the ...
In England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Church of England, established by her father King Henry VIII, turned the country into a Protestant kingdom. Before this, Catholicism was the main practiced religion, but, in the turbulent times of changing the religion of the nation, Catholics were still large in number. Threatened with death fo...
Jun 24, 2013 · Here’s a disguised entrance to a hidden reading room in the National Library in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Lauren Pressley The Củ Chi tunnels in Vietnam were used as hiding spots during combat.
- Stacy Conradt
- Singer Castle. In 1896, Frederick Bourne, the president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, purchased Dark Island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River in New York.
- The Wolf’s Lair. Luxist/Moby. Now owned by Moby, the Wolf’s Lair Castle in Hollywood was once owned by L. Milton Wolf, one of the early developers of Hollywoodland.
- The Murder Castle. WeirdChicago. In 1889, Herman W. Mudgett built a hotel in Chicago in preparation for the influx of tourists the Windy City was sure to experience with the upcoming 1893 World’s Fair.
- House of the Seven Gables. Salem.org. The Nathaniel Hawthorne book by the same name inspired a secret passage in the original House of the Seven Gables, which inspired the novel.
Travel through the hidden underbelly of the city in colorful tunnels filled with art and history exhibits.
Jul 16, 2015 · We dug into our listings to uncover homes with their own underground tunnels—and lo and behold, we found 10 properties with passages below the surface.