Switzerland’s Cold-War Bunker Legacy and Modern Role

Switzerland maintains a network of more than 370,000 nuclear bomb shelters, guaranteeing a protected space for every one of its roughly 9 million residents. Built primarily in the 1970s, the Sonnenberg bunker beneath Lucerne was originally designed to hold 20,000 people—about a third of the city’s population at the time. Today the facility’s capacity has been reduced to 2,000, and its underground spaces are used for refugee housing, overflow shelters, and other social services.

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During the Cold War, Swiss officials reasoned that a neutral nation would likely avoid a direct nuclear strike but could still suffer fallout from neighboring powers. Consequently, shelters were equipped with diesel-powered generators capable of sustaining occupants for two weeks. A parliamentary debate in 2010-2011 considered abandoning the system, but the 2011 Fukushima disaster reinforced the view that the shelters constitute a vital national reserve. The “island of calm” metaphor—first articulated in World War I, revived in World II, and adapted to the nuclear era—has been woven into school curricula, where students spend a week learning about civil-defense shelters.

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• Shelter count: > 370,000 across the country.

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• Original capacity (Sonnenberg): 20,000 people; reduced (2002): 2,000.

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• Construction/maintenance fee for owners: $1,700 – $3,500 per household.

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• Generator endurance: two weeks of food, water, and power.

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• Population coverage: one shelter space per citizen, mandated for new residential buildings or funded by developers for nearby state-maintained shelters.

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Civil-defense officials also note that the length of stay in a bunker depends on the external situation, citing current conventional conflicts such as those in Ukraine and Israel as examples where temporary sheltering is appropriate.

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• “Back then, 20,000 people constituted a third of our city's inhabitants,” — Zora Schelbert

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• “So after two weeks, no more food, no more water, no more power,” — Zora Schelbert

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• “And they came to the conclusion that it's good to have those shelters as a national reserve to protect the people in the real emergency,” — Daniel Jordi, vice director of Switzerland's federal office of civil protection

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