ST. MARGARETHEN, Switzerland
The Wider Image: A new life for Swiss army bunkers
A bunker at aformer Swiss artillery fortress called Heldsberg stands near the town of St. Margareten, Switzerland March 22, 2015. Heldsberg fortress, located on the Swiss-Austrian border near the River Rhine and Lake Constance was built from 1938 to 1940 and remained in military use until 1992. Since 1993 it is open to the public as Fortress Museum Heldsberg. With the threat of foreign invasion a thing of the past, thousands of military bunkers and fortresses in Switzerland have been put to commercial use, from hotels to data centres, museums to cheese factories. The Swiss army has sold most of these decommissioned strongholds, but about a thousand unused bunkers remain, many still disguised as houses and barns. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann PICTURE 14 OF 27 - SEARCH "SWISS BUNKER" FOR ALL IMAGES