Festungsraum Sargans, Military fortress in Sargans, Switzerland.

Festungsraum Sargans is a ring-shaped fortress system built into the rock around the Sargans basin, where the Rhine crosses north-south and east-west routes. It comprises artillery works such as Ansstein and Schollberg, concrete bunkers, and interconnected positions facing north, east and south. A photograph shows a rectangular opening in grey rock, framed by a smooth border and hung with vertical metal chains, through which a cylindrical barrel with a black tip points left.

The Sargans fortress area was one of three large Swiss Army fortress zones, alongside Saint-Maurice and St. Gotthard, in the Reduit defence of the Second World War and the Cold War. It belonged to Fortress Brigade 13. In 1934 engineer colonel Hans Luzi Gugelberg von Moos urged fortifying the Sargans area, and in winter 1936/37 the General Staff drew up a 52-million-franc programme for the eastern front with the Ansstein and Schollberg artillery works. The site's castle and small town were first mentioned in 1282.

The name Sargans goes back to the castle and small town first recorded in 1282, which became the seat of the counts of Werdenberg-Sargans in the mid-13th century. From 1459 to 1798 the Confederates governed Sargans as a common lordship. Visitors today see the rock face with its chain curtain and the barrel of a gun protruding through it.

The fortress is open to visitors through organized tours that lead through the underground chambers and tunnels. Wear comfortable walking shoes since the passages have uneven surfaces and you will be walking in cool subterranean conditions.

The entire fortress was hidden inside the mountain to protect it from air attacks, making it nearly invisible from outside. This clever construction method made it one of the most concealed defense installations in Switzerland.