Castels Fortress

En un regard

Le château en bref

Castels Fortress (military designation A 6400), sometimes spelt Kastels, is a rock-cut fortress installation for the Swiss Army's fortress artillery, excavated into the Castels hill, north-west of Mels, in the canton of St Gallen. Planned from 1939 as the central installation of the Sargans fortified sector, it forms, together with Furggels and Magletsch, the corner points of this system, one of the largest in the National Redoubt, and complements the Passati installation in blocking the Seez valley. Completed at the end of 1943 according to the military inventory (some passages give 1942), it was armed with three 10.5 cm turret guns, two 7.5 cm bunker guns and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns; four 8.1 cm fortress mortars were added during the Cold War. The installation also served as a recruit barracks and a firing range. Declassified as a combat installation under the Army 95 reform, it remains occasionally used as underground accommodation and as a command post for the security of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Castels hill itself is a fortified settlement site, known from prehistory to the early Middle Ages according to St Gallen archaeology.