10 of the Coolest Secret Passages in People’s Homes

--By Sushma Pradhan

Why or what is the purpose behind a secret? Secret could be anything, be it a way to a dream or surprise or a dungeon dark and deep. Nevertheless, secrets always create inquisitiveness. And inquisitiveness gives way to brainstorming. That’s why I believe we have so many wonderful discoveries today. However, I do not want to deviate from what I want to focus. Secrets.

Have you ever thought of secret passages in your home? Don’t you think the idea is cool, well yes it does seem to, but these secret passages are not always cool, behind them may be story of agony or a saga of horror.
But beyond doubt, these secret passages in one’s home has been a fantasy ever since the birth of humankind. How would the fiction world survive without secret passages? Could castles be ever complete without a secret passage? Let us look into some of the secret passages in the homes that have made that age so famous.

A secret passage mostly signifies a concealed route to travel sneakily. These passages are somewhere where no one can detect the entry. The doors are camouflaged so that they appear as a part of the structure such as bookshelf, fireplace, etc. At times, these entrances are ornately designed functioning with a hidden mechanism.

The castles in the medieval ages had secret passages for the inhabitant to escape during a siege. The traditional Arabic houses have secret runaway passages with the concealed doors. These doors are called the “Bab Al Sirr”. Let us travel from down the ancient time through to the present age to few of the secret passages:

1. Egyptian Pyramids (1000 AD):  The Egyptian pyramids has lots of secret passages, which are more commonly called the booby traps. These booby traps are more like an anti-personal weapon to severely harm or kill encroachers. As the name suggests this trap is to ensnare the enemy soldiers and the main purpose behind such booby traps is to ensure the safety of the burial chamber and prevent grave robbers.  There are statues that hold the mechanism to the door opening and leading to the secret chamber.

2. The Passetto (1277):  The Passetto or Passetto di Borgo is a covert operational passage that interlinks  Vatican City and Castle of Sant’ Angelo. It is 800 meter long corridor. The Passetto looks like a wall from outside but it has tunnel inside, which over the time has served as a runaway route to the Popes during emergency. When Charles VIII invaded the Vatican in 1494, Pope Alexander VI crossed himself to safety similarly, Pope Clement fled to safety in the year 1527 during the Sack of Rome.

3. Speakeasies (1920-1930): During the age of US Prohibition, Speakeasies were very common illegal bars. A legitimate business front formed the mode of concealing these infamous bars. One such infamous speakeasies happened to be housed in the Bell Jewelry Store in Decatur, Illinois. Apart from speakeasies the store had a gambling parlor and brothel too.
The customers to the speakeasies or the other illegal corner accessed the place via the stairway that was in the street and entered a shop of the sporting goods. This shop acted like a veil to the dark world behind. The customers walked across the rows of shelves crowded with dusty sports merchandise to a secret panel. This secret panel was in the wall that slid open to bare the entrance of the brothel and speakeasies.

4. Secret passages for smuggling (2000-2002):  Stanislas Gosse used the secret passages to steal more than one thousand books from the library of Mont Sainte-Odile’s monastery. Stanislas Gosse found an old map that showed the secret entrance to the library. The route was a difficult one, it involved climbing the exterior walls, a series of steep stairs and then the secret chamber. The opening to the secret chamber was a special mechanism that was hidden behind one of the five cupboards in the room.
The authorities of the library got suspicious when there was a large disappearance of precious books in a short span of time. It was the closed circuit television that ultimately solved the problem and helped nab Stanislas Gosse.

5.  Tunnel for smuggling: Between US and Mexico there ran a 720 meter long tunnel mostly used for illegal purpose. This tunnel was discovered on January 25 2006. This tunnel not only served as transportation of huge quantities of marijuana but also was used for illegal immigration.

6. Panic Rooms: These rooms are also called the ‘safe rooms’. There are only handful contractors who specialize in constructing hidden doors in the UK and US. These secure rooms are camouflaged for security of the residents mostly for the top executives and celebrities, when there is an invasion or break-in.  These fortified secret rooms are well equipped for action during emergency and the inhabitants can call for help using cellular phones and land-line phones, stay within till the help reaches or normalcy retains.

7. Fictional uses: The secret passages have always formed the plot element for many fictional stories. Bookshelves and special mechanism wonderfully disguised behind common looking object of an ordinary home, form the opening device to these secret passages.
Two such examples of fictional passages are the 'Mysterious Chamber' in the story of Mark Twain.  A young lover cannot fathom how he gets entrapped in the secret passages for years, underneath the castle.
The superhero Batman resides in a bat-cave that is made up of series of subterranean caves that was hidden beneath Wayne Manor, his residence.

8. Secret passages in detective stories: If you know Faulkner’s Folly,  you will also know of the ‘impossible crime’. Mostly a murder takes place is a upper class house and the murderers’ use the secret passageway and hidden doors to reach the victim.  Another character that uses secret passages is the Phantom in ‘The Phantom of the Opera House’. Phantom has his den beneath the opera house. James Bond, the famous character of Ian Flemming, too had hidden lairs and passages.

9. Secret Passages in hotels:  The Fairmont San Francisco that costs 10,000 dollars per night for a entire floor, is a penthouse. It has a two storey circular library, a Tiffany skylight, a 24- hours room service, tiled billiards room and four fireplaces.  In case, the resident wants to receive the guest discreetly one can push the bookcases and find the way through the suite secret passageway.

10. Secret passages in games:  How can one ever think of fun and excitement without secret trap doors and passages in the videogames. In the world of video games dungeon and traps are all around the castles and buildings.  The game Cluedo has two secret passages that the players can access to defend and make a move.
For example, computer and video games have many hidden areas that serve as an important part of the game. These secret passages mostly serve as a bonus or a reward to the player who discovers it.