Motto Bartola, Military fortress in Airolo, Switzerland

Motto Bartola is a military fortress at 1,527 meters (5,010 feet) elevation on the southern side of the Gotthard Pass in Ticino canton. The complex has accommodation areas for about 95 people and multiple gun positions designed for different cannon calibers.

Construction began in 1888 as a provisional work above Forte Airolo, which was still unfinished, and was completed in summer 1890, the same year as Forte Airolo. In 1947 it was decommissioned as a combat installation of the Gotthard fortress area and has since been used as a barracks by the Swiss Army. In 2004 it hosted the retraining course of fortress artillery detachment 13, the last such unit after Army Reform XXI; it was disbanded in 2011.

The fortress embodies a military response to the strategic needs of a mountain pass and shows how Switzerland wanted to defend its borders. You can still see today the specialized installations designed for high-altitude warfare, built very differently from fortresses in flatter terrain.

The fortress stands at 1,527 m at the entrance to the Tremola on the old Gotthard road, above Forte Airolo; the Banchi-Weg, built in 1898 from the Gotthard Hospiz to the Alpe di Fieud, leads up to the heights above it. The site is still used by the Swiss Army as a barracks, so access to the interior may be restricted. The nearby Festung Foppa Grande lies less than 300 m away.

The open battery could be seen from Alpe di Fieud at 2,000 m, so in 1898 a fortified path, the Banchi-Weg, was built from the Gotthard Hospice to the alp, where barracks were erected. In 1903 two infantry strongpoints with open trenches and masonry shelters for about 70 men followed, at 1,930 m below the Belvedere viewpoint and at 2,070 m northeast of the road tunnel's south portal.