For a few hours only, you can visit a perfectly preserved air-raid bunker in Milan

In every city, there are public buildings that, while visible in daily life, remain largely unknown. They are certainly visible — sometimes even monumental, with travertine, columns, and façades that assert their presence with a certain solemnity — yet they stay on the margins of common perception, as if the very nature of their identity obscures them through sheer presence. These are the spaces of bureaucracy, where the relationship between the state and the citizen unfolds in its most ordinary, functional form. The Palazzo delle Finanze in Milan, at the intersection of via Manin and via della Moscova, is perhaps one such case. As the main headquarters of important tax offices, it is recognisable to anyone passing by — and anyone who has walked through the Giardini Indro Montanelli has certainly seen it — but while few know what lies behind its austere façade, almost no one has ever had access to what, intact for decades, has remained closed to the public: its air-raid shelter.

On the occasion of the FAI Spring Days, on March 21 and 22, 2026, the palace will open its doors for a tour that for the first time will include not only the vault - where some relics of Milanese financial history are on display - and the monumental interior spaces, but also the underground bunker. It will be a historic opening and, at the same time, the last before the start of a broader renovation of the building by Asti Architetti.

Built in the 1930s by the Civil Engineering Corps in collaboration with the architect Eugenio Morelli, the palace was conceived to meet the practical need to rationalize the tax bureaucracy by consolidating the city’s financial offices, previously scattered across multiple buildings, into a single location. Its architecture reflects the institutional language and standards of the time: compact volumes, durable materials, and a design intended to convey solidity and authority. Decorative elements, including allegorical sculptures representing Finance, Labor, the State, and the Law, further contribute to the symbolic construction of this space dedicated to financial administration.

At the same time, the historical and regulatory context was changing. In the 1930s, with the organization of passive defense and the implementation of UNPA (National Union for Air-Raid Protection) policies, it became mandatory for public and private buildings — especially newly constructed ones — to include air-raid shelters. This was not a minor detail but a profound transformation in the way cities were designed, requiring planners to consider the threat of aerial attacks as a concrete design variable.

Starting in 1940, Milan was repeatedly targeted by Allied bombings, which between 1942 and 1943 caused extensive damage to the urban fabric and forced the population to use shelters systematically. In this context, the Palazzo delle Finanze’s shelter became part of a wider network of civil protection spaces, often inaccessible but serving as essential witnesses to everyday life during those years.

The reopening of the bunker during the FAI Spring Days offers the opportunity to reconstruct the history of the palace in its entirety, connecting its representative dimension — the visible, institutional façade — with the hidden, functional aspects that are often overlooked in the narrative of Milan’s urban evolution.

Opening image: Palazzo delle Finanze, Milan. ©Roberto Morelli