San Carlo Fortress
Map with all coordinates: 
The fortress San Carlo (also AW San Carlo , army designation A 8390 ) is a Swiss artillery plant on the Gotthard Pass in the municipality of Airolo in the canton of Ticino . It is located at 2060 m above sea level. M. below the Lago di San Carlo and the dam of the Lago di Lucendro , at the lower end of the Valletta di San Gotthardo, at the San Carlo curve of the old Gotthard road. The plant, built in 1942, was closed as a combat facility in 1999. In 2004 the converted fortress was opened as the “La Claustra” wellness hotel.
history
Artillery fortress
The Federal Council saw the political events in Germany and Italy as a possible threat to Switzerland, which also made it necessary to strengthen the Gotthard fortifications. In 1929 Italy built a road on the San Giacomo Pass , which is only 14 kilometers away (as the crow flies) from the south portal of the Gotthard railway tunnel .
The erection of infantry barriers was the first measure. However, since the infantry needed the support of the far-reaching artillery, the construction of the San Carlo artillery plant was started in 1938 as a prototype of a new generation of fortresses with two 10.5 cm armored turrets model 39 L52 . The Sasso da Pigna fortress was built as the second Gotthard fortress in 1941 and was to be armed with 15 cm cannons.
At the beginning of the Second World War , the guns were assembled by K + W Thun . The fixtures in the rock caverns consisted of free-standing buildings on plinths. In November 1939, both towers were connected and ready for use. The accommodation was finished in 1942 and the local defense systems at the end of 1944. The long construction time was due to the new type of work and weapon and the height of the construction site with the difficult weather conditions. Further improvements and modernizations were carried out up to the last refresher course in 1994.
The plant was decommissioned and declassified from 1999.
hotel
In 2004 the fortress was reopened as the seminar and wellness hotel “La Claustra”, which Lucerne artist and sociologist Jean Odermatt had converted into. In 2010 the hotel was closed for economic reasons. The entrepreneur Rainer Geissmann from Airolo bought the hotel for 1000 francs and reopened it in September 2015.
Mission and military importance
Together with the large artillery works Sasso da Pigna, Foppa Grande , Gütsch, Bäzberg, Fuchsegg and Grimsel of the Gotthard central fortress , the AW San Carlo had the task of blocking and maintaining the Gotthard axis.
After the end of active service , General Henri Guisan wrote in his report to the Federal Assembly in 1946 in connection with the Réduit formation in 1940 :
“From now on, the three great fortresses ( Sargans , Gotthard and St. Maurice) no longer appeared to be just mighty barricades of valleys or strategically important directions. They became the main pillars of the overall plan between which we could erect others; and one of them, the Gotthard, became the citadel, that is, the core of the strongest and longest resistance, and at the same time the central command post for the Alpine crossings over which we had to keep control. "
plant
For the tunnel length of 690 meters and the 4,000 m² of usable underground area, the rock excavation cubature was around 18,000 m³.
The following buildings were housed in the five caverns:
- the ammunition magazine
- the building with engine room, gas protection room, corps material depot and switchboard
- Kitchen, crew and officers' dining room, showers
- three crew accommodation rooms for 44 men each, accommodation room for 10 NCOs, 2 accommodation rooms for officers, doctor's room, accommodation for 2 medical soldiers, sick room with 6 beds, company office with 2 NCO beds
- Commandant's southern front command wing, 6 officers 'rooms, non-commissioned officers' rooms, room and office of the commandant's southern front, office and chancellery, toilet and washroom, food and supplies magazine
The freestanding buildings in the caverns stood on a base grid that left a cavity of 50 centimeters under the Ottiker element floor.
Armament
The AW San Carlo was able to occupy the area all around (360 °) with an effective firing range of 18 to 22 kilometers with artillery fire. It was a prototype for a new type of fortress guns with 10.5 cm tank turret cannons , with which the fortresses St. Gotthard (ten pieces), St. Maurice (two pieces) and Sargans (ten pieces) during the Second World War from 1939 to 1944 ) were populated. The 10.5 cm tank turret cannon 1939 L52 had a muzzle velocity of 830 m / sec and a range of up to 22 kilometers (with a pointed grenade 24 kilometers).
From 1948 to 1987 there was a semi-mobile mine thrower battery with four heavy 12 cm mine throwers, with which dead spaces in the area around the fortress of the Gotthard Pass could be filled with artillery fire.
There were five infantry bunkers with machine gun equipment for local and external defense .
Fortress Company
Fort Hospice on August 29, 1939, with around 130 men, was in charge of the fortress artillery company 17 and was responsible for San Carlo until 1944, when it was replaced by the newly formed fortress artillery company 28 with 155 men. This was renamed in 1962 (Troop Order 61) as part of the fortress department 6 in the fortress company II / 6.
The members of the fortress company received mountain training from the troops' own trainers, such as mountain guides, tour guides and ski instructors. In the refresher course in 1968 , among other things, rappelling over rock faces was practiced under Private Max Eiselin , the former leader of the Dhaulagiri expedition in 1960.
Web links
- Hansjakob Burkhardt: The Gotthard fortress “San Carlo”, the prototype of all artillery works with 10.5 cm turret cannons Mod 1939 L52. (pdf, 13.7 MB)
- Artillery Works San Carlo ( Memento of August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in festung-oberland.ch (accessed on: May 2, 2016.)
- Fortress world: San Carlo artillery plant
- Jean Odermatt on his project
- (PDF; 6.8 MB) Christian Spiess: Alternative uses for Swiss military and civil defense systems, University of Zurich 2010 (PDF; 6.8 MB) Christian Spiess: Alternative uses for Swiss military and civil defense systems, University of Zurich 2010