Built to protect Italy’s northern economic center during World War II, this obelisk-shaped bomb shelter stands 100 feet tall, towering over Milan’s landscape.

Constructed to give shelter to the workers of “Magneti Marelli” an electrical tools factory in Milan, Italy, the shelter was created to protect an industry considered vital to the war effort. Its coned shape was supposed to deflect falling bombs, and judging from the 60-year-old relics, it seems to have worked. Several other cone shelters still survive around the elegant and very un-fascist Milan of today.