The Lovely Swiss Villas That Could Destroy An Army

How do you hide a deadly military fortress? Well if you're Swiss, you paint it pastel pink and pretend it's a harmless family home. I went to the shores of Lake Geneva to find out more...

CREDITS:

[daedraq]

Imagine a burglar cracking open the garage door to then just stand in front of a massive gun

[terrors]

As a member of the Swiss army, I can tell you that we have more than these two bunkers camouflaged as houses. I've been in several farm houses that you would never think that it's a bunker with full infrastructure and space for several hundred soldiers.
I worked for two weeks straight underground in one with never seeing daylight. We had kitchen, offices, TV rooms and of course dorms and there was nothing from outside needed.

[LuccaGasser]

Proud of my Country! Never lost focus on what's really important for Switzerland, Tourists.

[adityapradeep]

I visited the Villa Rose today (6/11/2021) and hiked the whole Sentier de Toblerones from Bassins to Nyon. I put it on my ToDo list since I saw your video Tim and decided to do this the next time the Villa Rose had an open house. Thank you so much!

The Villa Rose is run by volunteers and the inside was really well maintained. I was not expecting much but it was quite cool! Some things I learned:
1. The reason it was painted pink was that it was a popular colour at the time for suburban houses.
2. Q: Why was this fortification line (Toblerones and Villa Rose) built further east at Nyon and not at say Geneva? And why were the fortresses near the main road?
A: From Geneva, the first natural boundary is the river Promenthouse. So they built the toblerones on the right side of the river, so that the tanks would have to go first downhill, cross the river and then go uphill where they are met with these toblerones(each of which weigh upto 14 tons). The reason these 2 forts(Villa Rose and Villa verte) are near the main road(and are hence disguised as houses) was that there was a bridge across the river near the main road and so these forts were necessary.
3. The buildings are basically just a lot of concrete and there isn't a lot of space inside, considering there were 16 people (8 working and 8 sleeping) and a further 8 outside the villa!
4. Each fort had 3 cannons and some machine guns pointed outside. Each fort aims one of these in the direction of the other forts to assist in the defense of the other by crossfire.
5. The windows where the cannons are not trapezoidal shaped but are basically cuboids over cuboids - this is to prevent bullet ricochets!
6. There is a tiny vertical hole at the windows near the cannons. This is so that the soliders can drop grenades on potential enemy soldiers who managed to get close to the cannons to manually try destroying them.
7. They have a really cool ventilation system which still works today, which circulates air from outside to inside while also maintaining lower air pressure inside, so that air would always find it easier to come in.

The Sentier de Toblerones hike is really pretty in Fall (would recommend avoiding going through the nearby golf course tho). Highly recommend visiting the Villa Rose on one of its open days and donating to help them keep up the good work!

[ss]

Army: we’d like to build some military fortifications.
Local Council: they must be in keeping with the local surroundings.
Army: I guess we can do that.

[cesariojpn]

Tim now on a Swiss Watch List for revealing Swiss Military Secrets.

[CmonSoundz]

When you live in Switzerland and there is a guy from the UK telling you cool stuff about your home country. :-)

[starlittardis]

"And of course, we're not here to see any of that!" I always smile when that line comes up.

[awfan]

I think British people were created to commentate things. They have perfect voices for commentary. They can hold their liquor pretty well too

[scheberoff]

An advertisement for sale of the house:
"A bit older, with no parking space inside, but alarm is connected to good defense tools and this house have never been robbed out yet."

[SeverityOne]

The Swiss have a much more capable defence these days.
"OK, Switzerland, that's it. I'm invading you."
"We understand, Mr President. I'm afraid we'll have to close your bank account, though."
"On second thought, forget what I said."

[johncalvinhall]

Tim, I really appreciate your videos. Being an amputee, I no longer am able to walk and hike as easily as I used to Thanks to your videos, I can continue to see the world. Keep up the good work.

[tf]

Plot twist: Tim is actually a secret agent surveying Switzerland.

[GewürzGurkenGeorg]

As someone who lived in Lindau Germany, next to the border, i can tell that the bunkers torwards Germany are also nicely decorated and hidden

[ElectricityTaster]

If I were invading Switzerland and that Toblerone line was actually made out of Toblerone, I can see myself being stuck there for a few weeks rather than a few minutes.

[fpdtosl]

When you die, they're gonna write on your tombstone "but of course, we're not here to see any of that!"

[gyrocompa]

4:35 "Oh elle est jolie cette maison !" You killed me !

[smittube]

First rule of Fake Villas: DON’T TALK ABOUT FAKE VILLAS

[jakedasnake]

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." SUN TZU

[kevw]

Now that, is what random YouTube recommendations are all about. Sweet.