Fort du Cindey

Useful Information

Location:	Saint-Maurice, Valais Suisse. About 300 m north of St-Maurice and 28 km west of Sion. Meeting for tours at the Grotte aux Fées.
Open:	15-MAR to JUN Sat, Sun 14. JUL to 15-JUL daily 13:30. 15-JUL to 23-AUG daily 10:30, 13:30, 16. 24-AUG to 15-NOV Sat, Sun 14. [2020]
Fee:	Adults CHF 14, Children (0-16) CHF 7, Family CHF 30, Students CHF 12, Seniors CHF 12, Military in uniform CHF 12. Groups (10+): Adults CHF 12, Children (0-16) CHF 6, Students CHF 10, Seniors CHF 10, Military in uniform CHF 10. [2020]
Classification:	Cave Castles
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=10 °C.
Guided tours:	D=2.5 h, ( by reservation)
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Forteresse historique de St-Maurice, Michel Galliker, Avenue d'Agaune 19, CH-1890 St-Maurice. E-mail: Reservations: St-Maurice Tourisme, Avenue des Terreaux 1, 1890 St-Maurice, Tel: +41-24-485-4040, Fax: +41-24-485-4080. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1476	Castle St-Maurice errected.
1941-46	main fort constructed as a defense for World War II.
1948-52	fort enlarged by huge storage rooms.
1995	decommissioned.

Description

The Fort du Cindey is a decommissioned part of the Swiss fortifications and was constructed during World War II for the defense of the Rhone valley. The Rhone valley is an important route through the Alps connecting the Franche-Comte with the Piemont. A series of forts around St-Maurice, Cindey, Dailly, Savatan and Scex, were intended to defend the St-Maurice gap, a narrow part of the Rhone valley north of St-Maurice against a conventional army. As a result this is neither an air raid shelter nor a bunker, it is actually a fortification with numerous canons and machine guns. This location has a long tradition, since the 15th century a castle was protecting the valley.

The fort was manned by 173 men, 8 officers, 28 sergeants and 1. It was equipped with 2 10.5 cm cannons, 4 anti tank cannons with 9 cm since 1950/57, and three machine guns since 1951. It also had 4 mine throwers with 8.1 cm since 1933.

A strange specialty with Fort du Cindey and Fort du Scex is, that they were connected by a natural cave, a passage of the nearby show cave Grotte aux Fées. The passage was extended by the army to allow easy access. The guided tours start at the Grotte aux Fées and enter the fort through this tunnel. This is one of the reasons why both forts are often described together. However, they are visited on different tours.