Address: Via Paolo da Cannobio

In the building which was in Via Paolo da Cannobio 35 - later torn down during the war - there was the Milanese headquarter of the fascists of Benito Mussolini from 1919 until the end of 1921.

Called the hideout of the squadrists, the old house was kept for all the Thirties as a small museum of the fascist regime in its early years; school children used to visit it. In the yard there were the Friesian horses which were supposed to protect a door with ground glasses. Here there was the typography of Mussolini’s newspaper “Il Popolo d’Italia” (The people of Italy), while on the first floor there was Mussolini’s studio furnished with the relics of his first feats, including a hand crank telephone, hand bombs, etc; all things that were there to demonstrate that fascism would be able to defend young Italians from the danger of Communism, as teachers used to tell their pupils. 

In the neighbouring room there was the studio of his brother Armando, the administrative director of the newspaper, while in the basement there was a real armory of firearms besides batons and castor oil for punitive reprisals.