All around the world, secret rooms – old and new – draw peoples’ interest and attention. Here are ten secret rooms that are especially intriguing.
1. Mount Rushmore’s Secret Room
This first room, I am sure, reminds many of us of the finding of the City of Gold in the second Nation Treasure movie. Unlike Cíbola – the City of Gold – however, this hidden spot in Mount Rushmore is very real. In Keystone, South Dakota, lies the secret room, hidden in one of the most well-know monuments of the United States – Mount Rushmore. In fact, this secret room lies inside the carving of Lincoln.
The secret room is essentially a safe room for American history. It includes copies of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and US Constitution carved on porcelain enamel panels. Also kept there is a record of the reason that Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Washington were carved on Mount Rushmore, as well as the biography of Gutzon Borglum, who was the sculptor of Mount Rushmore. (It was his idea to have the vault built to hold America’s history, but he died before he was able to see his plans through.) The room is quite formidable, as the vault is made of titanium, and is protected with a massive piece of granite that weighs more than a one thousand pounds!
2. The Amber Room
The Amber Room, sometimes called the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, was a fascinating room that was moved from place to place, until it finally disappeared in 1944. Building commenced in 1701, and the Amber Room was placed in the home of Freidrik the I of Prussia. That the construction of this room was expensive would be an understatement; it is estimated that the room would have been worth $142 million dollars by todays standards. The room was built with an impressive several tons of amber, hence the name the Amber Room. In 1716, the King of Prussia gifted the Amber room to Peter the Great. The room was installed in the Winter House in St. Petersburg. Later, in 1755, the room was moved to Catherine Palace in Pushkin. In 1941, the Amber Room was plundered by the Nazis, who quickly packed up the room, and sent it off to Germany where it was installed in Königsberg’s Castle. In 1943, it was decided that the room should be packed up and shipped to a new location once again, but when the castle was destroyed by bombs, the Amber room was lost, and to this day, no one is certain as to where it it.
3. Stalin’s Secret Room
In 1904, Stalin had a secret underground room, where he would print propaganda encouraging the removal of the Tsar. The old printing press that Stalin used was sneaked into Tbilisi by those who supported the Bolsheviks. Stalin even had an underground escape route so that he could get away should the Russians find his secret room. In 1906, however, the room was found, and the printing press was destroyed.
4. Napoleon’s Secret Staircase
Even though he did not actually seem to have a secret room, I thought that Napoleon’s secret staircase was worth mentioning. In his home, chateau de Malmaison, Napoleon had a secret staircase which led up to his rooms on the first level of the house. Unfortunately, I could not find a whole lot of information about Napoleon’s secret staircase, only that it existed, and led to his rooms on the first floor.
5. Singer Castle (The Castle of Secrets)
Singer Castle is full of tunnels and secret entrances. In fact, one particularly interesting hidden entrance is opened with a secret button in a bookshelf. Another interesting secret spot in this castle is a room that is presumed to be a sort of treasure room for the people who had previously lived in the castle to store their valuables in. The entrance to this secret room is a trap door in the floor of the maid’s living quarters. The castle also has grates and paintings that one can look through from the secret tunnels, and spy on those in other rooms. Supposedly, the servants of the castle used to do this.
These five secret rooms are just a fraction of the many secret rooms around the world and throughout history. I hope my writing about these five hidden rooms has inspired you to search out more secret and mysterious places!