Sasso da Pigna fortress

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Main entrance to the Sasso da Pigna complex and the Sasso San Gottardo exhibition . The entrance area can be accessed with a Saurer 2DM truck .

The fortress Sasso da Pigna (A 8385) is a Swiss artillery plant on the Gotthard Pass in the municipality of Airolo in the canton of Ticino . The work, created in 1943, was used as a combat facility in 1998 and opened as the Museum Sasso San Gottardo in 2012 .

Museum Sasso San Gottardo: historical fortress and adventure world

On August 25, 2012, the Sasso San Gottardo Museum was opened in the Sasso da Pigna fortress . The name comes from the rock terrace Sasso di San Gottardo .

What was once TOP SECRET is now a UNIQUE MUSEUM. In 2019, after the seventh full season, over 200,000 visitors discovered the heart of Switzerland!

Deep inside the Gotthard - in the gun rooms, ammunition stores and accommodations - contemporary history can be experienced first hand, as if the soldiers were returning at any moment. In addition to the historic fortress, visitors can visit the Gotthard Adventure World (crystal world - the largest giant crystals ever found, cabinet of curiosities, image machine reduit and exhibitions on the history of General Guisan and the Cold War). The underground transport system (Metro del Sasso) can be used to commute between the historical fortress “Sasso da Pigna” and the Gotthard adventure world.


  • Sasso San Gottardo giant crystals

    Giant crystals

history

The road from the Tosa Falls to the San Giacomo Pass, opened by Italy in 1929, led to the third major expansion of the Ticino fortress construction in the 1930s and during the subsequent World War. From San Giacomo an attacker could have descended into the Bedretto valley and attacked the fortifications of Airolo on the flank. The distance from San Giacomo to the south portal of the Gotthard railway tunnel or to the Gotthard pass is 14 kilometers, which is within the range of heavy artillery. The fact that Italy could have brought these guns into position was proven by the restaurant "Il Wagristoratore", which opened around 1930 on the top of the pass, consisting of a dining and sleeping car.

Switzerland had to act quickly. The erection of infantry barriers was the first countermeasure. In 1931, the chief genius of the Gotthard crew presented a project to fortify the San Giacomo. From 1935 on, an infantry factory was built on the Swiss pass side, which was expanded into a blocking point with 30 individual objects and a military cable car during the Second World War .

What was missing were modern artillery works as a support weapon for the infantry. The artillery works Fort Hospiz , Forte Airolo and Fortress Motto Bartola no longer corresponded to the modern fortress standard and were not rock works. New artillery works were built as part of the redoubt . The Sasso da Pigna plant was the second modern artillery plant , after the prototype San Carlo , to provide fire support for the infantry.

The planning for the fortress Sasso da Pigna only took a year. On August 28, 1941, the contract for the construction was signed. A few days after the contract was signed with the contractors, construction of the fortress began. The project provided for cannons with ammunition magazines on the southern slope of Monte Prosa , at the height of the Alpi di Sella . At the beginning only two 10.5 cm bunker cannons were planned. Another two 7.5 cm bunker cannons were included in the planning. The Gotthardpass road was to be closed with these 7.5 cm cannons. In November 1941, however, the decision was made to equip the plant with four 15 cm bunker cannons. Delivery problems then led to the fact that four 10.5 cm bunker cannons were installed. In July 1943, the first two 10.5 cm guns were ready to fire. In October, the two remaining 10.5 cm cannons were ready to fire.

One of the crew's bedrooms in Part B of the facility

Substantial changes were made to the project as early as 1942. It was decided that the accommodations should be built on the northern side behind the pass lake. At the end of construction, the work consisted of two clearly separated parts. Behind the main entrance was the logistical infrastructure such as kitchen, sickroom, accommodation, etc. In the upper part, connected by a 1 km long tunnel, a small accommodation part for the gun crew, ammunition magazines and of course the guns were installed. The two levels were separated by 400 steps. A small elevator ( funicular ) was available for the material .

For the outside defense to protect the loopholes for guns the infantry block A 8386 was Forte J south of it ( 687310  /  156389 created). Most of the air defense was also at this point.

Gun slot of a 15 cm cannon

In 1944 the 10.5 cm cannons were replaced by the previously planned 15 cm cannons. In September of the same year, the four 15 cm guns were ready to fire. The practical firing range of the 15 cm cannons was 23.5 km. This enabled the area to be reached in the western sector up to a line from Ulrichen (VS) to Formazza (Italy), in the eastern sector that from Scopi (Lukmanier) to Pizzo Campo Tencia.

The construction of the plant was finished in 1945. The cost of the work amounted to around 10 million Swiss francs .

With a tunnel length of 2.4 km and over 8,000 square meters of floor space, the system is one of the largest of its kind in the Gotthard area.

In 1998 the Sasso da Pigna plant was decommissioned.

Infrastructure

The work is divided into two parts:

Facilities Part A: Accommodation

Main entrance, filter room, command wing, provisions store, engine room, medical wing, accommodation wing, catering wing, water reservoir

  • Fire control center

  • Crew washroom

  • Gas door which separates the accommodation part from the rest of the facility

  • Engine room for power generation

Facilities Part B: Combat Stand

Guns East 1 and 2 (not open to the public and accessed with a second inclined elevator), filter room, machine gun stands, ammunition stores, accommodation wing, water source, guns West 1 and West 2

  • Underground funicular to part B

  • Gun base with expanded cannon

  • Interior view of ammunition magazine

  • Side entrance east

  • 15 cm gun in firing position

More weapons

  • Machine gun bunker

  • Infantry bunker of the external defense: machine guns flank the holes of the 15 cm guns

literature

  • On a high bastion. History and stories of the Gotthard brigades. Aktiv-Verlag, Stans 2003, ISBN 3-909191-29-0 .
  • Above the fog .

Web links

Commons : Sasso da Pigna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Experiences in the Gotthardfels in nzz.ch
  2. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 4: Plessur - Switzerland . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1906, p. 493, keyword Sasso di San Gottardo   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  3. ^ Fondazione Sasso San Gottardo: Gotthard Fortress. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Two railroad cars provoke the army. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Armasuisse: Military monuments in the canton of Ticino ( Memento of the original from 23 September 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ar.admin.ch

Coordinates: 46 ° 33 '31 "  N , 8 ° 33' 59"  E ; CH1903:  686,476  /  one hundred fifty-six thousand nine hundred ninety-one