The ForestiereUnderground Gardens in Fresno:

Starting in 1906 Sicilian immigrant Baldasare Forestiere, a vineyardist and horticulturalist, began carving a mysterious underground escape from the San Joaquin Valley's powerful heat. Now referred to as the Forestiere Underground Gardens his home sprawls across ten acres, and has over 100 rooms, and is listed as a California Historic Landmark.

Forestiere's family had been citrus growers in Messina, Sicily. He came to America in 1900 when he was 21 years old, wth dreams of establishing his own farm in California. After eight years as a construction worker in the new york subways, he has saved enough to purchase land in Fresno.

Unfortunately this dream shriveled, and the land he had bought turned out to be solid rock, beneath a thin layer of topsoil.

Forestiere spent forty years carving a mysterious underground escape from the San Joaquin Valley's powerful heat. Fashioned after the "visions stored in my mind," his caverns are a network of gardens illuminated with skylights, as well as comfortable living spaces for himself, including a kitchen, bedroom and fish pond. He was even able to grow his fruit trees- citrus, dates, olives and much more, as well as a bounty of other vegetation.

Years before Forestiere died he began building an Italian restaurant with a drive in tunnel with valet.

photo credit: Matthew E. Cohen/Flickr