In Austria, for example, coverage is 30 per cent, but most of the shelters do not have a ventilation system. The situation in other European countries does not even compare. But with 7.2 and 3.4 million protected places respectively (representing approximately 81 per cent and 70 per cent coverage), they are still far behind. A quick international survey is enough to demonstrate that no other country can rival it.

The Swiss are undoubtedly world champions in the construction of shelters. In 2006, there were 300,000 shelters in Swiss dwellings, institutions and hospitals, as well as 5,100 public shelters, providing protection for a total of 8.6 million individuals – a coverage of 114 per cent. This content was published on Sep 1, 2016What's it like to go inside what was once the biggest civilian bunker in the world? The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers But there is a more simple reason: it is a legal requirement. The Swiss do in fact spend more than almost any other nation (more than 20 per cent of their budget) to insure themselves against everything and everyone. And there is probably some truth in that assessment. These Swiss! Paranoid and obsessed with security, our friend must have thought. Thanks to the thick armoured door and the ventilation system, with anti-gas filter, if the worst came to the worst, the 25 or so tenants of our block could survive even a nuclear strike. Our friend has simply stumbled upon our fallout shelter. He has never been in the basement of a Swiss home.Ĭellar? Well, the room is half full of bottles of wine, old books, a freezer, unwanted clothes.

'Why on earth have you got a reinforced steel door in your cellar?' The amazement of a visiting Italian friend is easy to understand. Deutsch (de) Kein Land baut mehr Bunker als die Schweiz.

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