Fort de Dailly

The Fort de Dailly is the largest component of Fortress Saint-Maurice, which is in turn one of the three principal fortified regions of the National Redoubt of Switzerland. Almost entirely subterranean, the Fort de Dailly was built in the Massif de Dailly to the east of Saint-Maurice beginning in 1892. With the Fort de Savatan, it comprises a fortress complex encased in rock high above the strategic Saint-Maurice valley, capable of commanding the valley from Chillon to Martigny. It is the central component of Fortress Saint-Maurice in terms of both its position and its military power. Construction began in 1892 and the fort became operational in 1894.

The fort was nearly constantly upgraded with new artillery in increasingly secure positions. Following an incident in which three ammunition magazines exploded in close succession in 1946, the fort was repaired and upgraded with two fully automatic 150 mm gun turrets with a range of 24 kilometres (15 mi). After reassessments by the Swiss Armed Forces of their requirements for fixed fortifications, Dailly was progressively closed down starting in 1995, with full closure at the end of 2003.

Text adapted from “Fort de Dailly” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort de Dailly ranks #4,684 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #57 of the 201 mapped in Switzerland. Founded 1892 — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,636 times in the last 60 days, more than 62% of the atlas. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Lausanne, 47 km away. See how Switzerland compares in the castle statistics.

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