density would have essentially confined each person to their bunk. They would have had to queue to access the dry toilets and the taps in their survival unit, each of which has 64 places. Each individual would have had to bring their own food. Water would have been rationed. No resources were planned for heating the food, with the only kitchens in the shelter reserved for the staff and the underground hospital, which also included a few showers – the only ones in the building. The visit passes by an operating theatre, a meeting room and a radio studio. The association has been able to preserve the atmosphere of the Cold War years, maintaining surgical materials, telephone landlines and powdered survival rations. The blocks in the cavern run one after another, each identical. The walls are mainly painted in green and yellow, colours intended to have a calming effect. A delivery room for childbirth is painted a salmon shade. The cramped space immediately makes you want to escape. There is no chapel in Sonnenberg, but there are prison cells: enough to Guided tours now give an insight into this underground world born of the Cold War. They include visits to the bunker’s emergency hospital. Photo: Stéphane Herzog “Ameise” (or ant in English) was the name of an extensive emergency simulation that took place in the bunker in 1987. Photo: Keystone Switzerland has more than one shelter space per person Sonnenberg bunker is part of a global system, based on a law passed in 1959. The law guarantees a shelter space for each inhabitant, accessible in 30 minutes by foot. The country has around 365,000 private and public shelters, providing approximately 9 million places. This covers more than the entire population. In recent years, approximately 50,000 places were created each year, estimates the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection. The owners of each new house built are supposed to create their own shelter, which they must furnish and maintain. If a house does not have a shelter, a contribution for a replacement needs to be paid. Where there are shortfalls, the municipalities have to build, furnish and maintain public shelters. Built from reinforced concrete, the Swiss bunkers are meant to resist the pressure of a bomb and reduce radiation intensity by a factor of 500. The Swiss generally use the shelters as storage spaces or even for meeting rooms and for lodging asylum seekers or people with no fixed address. But these spaces must be made operational in five days. On 3 March, a week after the breakout of war in Ukraine, the Confederation gave notice that in light of the security situation, the cantons would have to “review the plans for allocation of shelter and adapt as necessary”. (SH) Reinforced concrete doors have been a familiar sight under Swiss homes for decades. Photo: Keystone hold 16 individuals. In the event of an attack, tensions underground would no doubt have come to a head. In fact, it is quite possible that this was a reason for the shelter’s 'downsizing'. At the end of the hole, we can see the traffic on the A5. “Financial support from the Confederation for the creation of this facility enabled Lucerne to build this motorway at low cost,” our guide reminds us. If so required, the inhabitants of Lucerne assigned a place in Sonnenberg would have crossed the playground and headed up the service tunnel. Swiss Review / July 2022 / No.3 Report
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