Fort Bühl, Military fortress in Uri, Switzerland

Fort Bühl is a fortress in the Swiss Alps positioned above the Gotthard area and the railway line below. The installation was built on a mountain ridge to control the crucial transit route connecting northern and southern Europe.

The fortress was built in 1892 as part of the Gotthard defense system and played a key role in protecting the Alpine passage. After the Second World War, it ceased operating as a combat installation and was converted into a military logistics center.

The fort's name comes from the Bühl hill above the Reuss, and the site is part of the Schöllenen barrier, a military-historical monument of national importance. Its first armament included two turrets with 12 cm cannons, three 5.3 cm mobile guns and two 8.4 cm bronze cannons in a caponier. The barracks behind the fort, built 1897–1901, had 340 beds and a tunnel straight into the rock works.

The fortress is under military control and not easily accessible to the general public. Visits are theoretically possible but require prior permission and must be arranged in advance with the relevant authorities.

Fort Bühl sits directly above the Gotthard railway tunnel, which runs 320 metres below it; the road tunnel opened in 1980 lies about 400 metres to the west. The rock-cut gallery in the Teufelswand was meant as a bypass if the Devil's Bridge had to be blown up, and from 1940 to 1991 it housed an army B laboratory.