En un regard
Le château en bref
Perched about 1,300 m above Airolo, Forte Airolo (formerly Fondo del Bosco) was designed to guard the southern portal of the Gotthard rail tunnel, the pass road and the Bedretto Valley. To a plan by Daniel von Salis-Soglio, a three-level granite complex was built: a combat wing, a living quarters wing and flank galleries, surrounded by a ditch defended by three caponiers. A gallery of roughly one kilometre connects it to the rail tunnel. Armed with cannons under Gruson turrets and quick-firing guns, it was decommissioned in 1947, became a museum in 1989 and remains partly a barracks within a military zone.