Bunker ante litteram : architettura domestiche in sottosuolo di epoca romana

The article offers an overview on rooms and buildings underground, realized as real secluded and hidden places similar to ‘bunker ante litteram’ to shelter from the summer heat, to be with few people, to carry out worship and work activities, but also as places to have a relaxing walk, often reproducing in the subsoil the same decorative luxury guaranteed to the rooms built on the surface. A dialogue between the archaeological documentation and some literary sources allows us to perceive the breadth of a predominantly Roman building phenomenon, that at the end of Antiquity, in the eyes of new Christian beliefs, still appeared extraordinary and therefore dangerously fascinating.