Fort du Scex, Military museum in Vérossaz, Switzerland
Fort du Scex is a military installation built into a cliff face in Vérossaz with underground passages, gun positions, and rooms for soldiers. The chambers are carved directly into the rock and overlook the valley below.
The fort was built in 1911 as part of a larger Swiss defense network designed to protect the Alps. It represented a new strategy of embedding weapons deep into rock faces instead of placing them on mountaintops.
The fort shows how Switzerland built its defenses by working with the natural rock face rather than against it. You can see this approach clearly in the passages and chambers carved into the mountainside.
The fort is accessible only during summer months and visitors should wear sturdy shoes since access involves stairs and narrow underground passages. Guided tours are required to safely explore the underground sections.
The fort was among the first to integrate a gun battery position sideways into the rock face, a technique that influenced other national defense systems. This flanking approach allowed defenders to fire at attackers from unexpected angles.
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