All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S08E05.The.Giant.Speaker.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom ward (narrates):
A peculiar concrete box

overlooking the coast of China.

It looks like a speaker only
it is the size of a building.

In Scotland the
windswept remnants

of a sea-faring people.

These men were a special
breed of professional plunderers.

An unassuming Swiss
village with a covert purpose.

This is not your average
bucolic Swiss pasture,

this is a killing field.

And an epic Alaskan venture
that led to fame and fortune.

They were celebrities
and incredibly famous

in American culture

and they were
controversial at times.

Decaying relics...

Ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

(Theme music)

On the coast of a tiny island just
a few miles from mainland China

a bizarre block looms
over the shoreline.

One of the strangest
things on the island

is this weird concrete box,

it almost looks like
an office building.

What appear to be windows
in an apartment block

are not windows at all.

They're little circular openings,
almost like a speaker on a radio.

Structures littering a nearby beach
might offer a clue to it's purpose.

There's rusty pieces of
metal sticking out of the beach

and there's various
odd structures

sticking out of the
ground here and there.

Someone has clearly
invested a great deal

in making it very hard
to land on this shore.

But not all of the defences
here are immediately visible.

There's a huge underground complex
carved in to one of these mountains.

There are tunnels
here that are big enough

to drive a truck through.

This wasn't some little hideaway,
this was a serious underground base.

As small and insignificant
as it appears today,

this island came very close
to triggering a nuclear war.

Yang shi rong grew up here

and remembers a time when this
beach was strictly out of bounds.

This is kinmen island.

Within sight of
neighbouring China,

this territory actually belongs
to another country, Taiwan.

This unique understanding

was born out of the
Chinese civil war,

which came to a head in 1949.

Mao totally defeats
the nationalist forces

and drives them out of China
and on to the island of Taiwan,

where they exist to this
day as the republic of China.

Chairman mao's communists,

the people's liberation army
had ousted the nationalists

led by general chiang Kai-shek.

Mao zedong seats himself
in power in mainland China.

And the previous government
of China under chiang Kai-shek

and the nationalist movement

flees to the island of Taiwan,

but they don't only take
the island of Taiwan,

they take this little island group
directly off the coast of China.

The biggest island
of the group is kinmen,

just four miles
from the mainland.

There's no way that the
communists wanted to tolerate

what they saw as
subversives right off their coast,

and in 1949 mao's forces
attack kinmen island.

But the defences that
can be seen here today

show the nationalists
were expecting them.

There's a 56-hour
battle for kinmen

as amphibious Chinese
communist forces

land on kinmen and try to rest
it from its nationalist defenders.

Bullet ridden buildings

are testament to the
ferocity of the fighting.

Yet mao's communist army

wasn't up to the
challenge of taking kinmen

from the nationalists.

They establish a beach head

but they cannot break out
on to the rest of the island.

They didn't have the
technical capability

to put a big enough
force on shore.

Those that did make it on to
the beaches were met with mines,

bunkers, and obstacles,

all backed up by a force
far larger than they expected.

Using these beach obstacles,
using these defences,

chiang Kai-shek pushes
them back in to the sea.

For mao it was a disaster,

9,000 communist
soldiers stormed ashore,

the majority of were
killed or taken prisoner.

The republic of China forces
were able to repel the attack

but it wouldn't be the last
time they came under fire.

Separated by only
a few miles of water,

the islanders knew it
was just a matter of time.

The Taiwanese build up kinmen
as a major defence bastion.

They honeycomb
all the cliffs and hills

with bunkers

and they make this a
much more defensible place.

The cold war was now
running hot throughout east Asia

and kinmen island found
itself on the front line.

We saw Korea falling
to the communists,

indo-China falling
to the communists,

all of China falling
to the communists.

The us felt that it was losing
this battle of containment,

and that something
had to be done.

Us president Dwight
eisenhower fearing a domino effect

of nations falling to communism

offered protection to
the Chinese nationalists

on Taiwan and kinmen.

In 1954 there's a
major international crisis

when mao zedong bombards kinmen

and the neighbouring
islands with artillery,

forcing the United States

to tell the communists
to cease and desist.

There's a second crisis
in 1958, much bigger one.

Mainland China really
unloaded on kinmen island,

they launched
an artillery barrage

that went on day and
night and just didn't stop.

Over 44 days

the people's liberation army

would deliver 470,000
artillery rounds.

It seemed only a matter of time

before the nationalists would
have to evacuate kinmen.

The big question in the
mind of everyone in China,

everyone on Taiwan,

and even back in Moscow is
what is Washington going to do?

In the us at one point
the joint chiefs of staff

recommended considering
nuclear weapons

to stop China's aggression.

Fortunately, cooler
heads prevailed.

Eisenhower resisted
calls for a nuclear strike,

instead he combined a
show of naval strength

with the supply of
military hardware.

The United States started
to give heavy howitzers,

a howitzer is an artillery piece
that's able to fire at a high angle.

It's able to throw its
shells up high in the air

over a long distance.

These behemoths could
fire huge shells over ten miles

making them a formidable
problem for the communists.

And kinmen's underground
bases provided the ideal location.

These guns made it possible

for the forces on kinmen
island to return fire,

they were able to start
shelling the mainland.

This initiated a curious ritual.

On alternate days

the gunners on each side
would prepare their guns,

load them up and
bombard the other side,

while the other side
kept their heads down.

While this bizarre
artillery duel continued,

the cold war was evolving.

Part of the continued
conflict was a propaganda war,

and that entailed a secret
weapon on the island.

Built in 1967,

this was the last of
five broadcasting walls

erected on kinmen.

The Chinese
nationalists realised...

That the communist projects

had killed a lot of
people in China,

had made a lot of people hostile

to the government in Beijing.

And so the nationalists decided

to start beaming propaganda

at the communist
population on the mainland.

It's said this
speaker was so loud,

it could be heard 15 miles
inland on the mainland.

Over time the speaker
was used not just for political

but cultural warfare.

The speaker tower
would blast out songs

from popular Taiwanese singers

and ear splitting
anti-communist propaganda.

By the late 1970s improving
relations between the United States,

China, and Taiwan
meant the guns,

propaganda, and
music finally fell silent.

Today, a ferry service runs
between Taiwanese kinmen

and the Chinese mainland,
but tensions in the region remain.

Officially our support for Taiwan
is known as strategic ambiguity.

In other words neither
Taiwan nor China really knows

whether we would come
to Taiwan's defence,

but so far China has not
wanted to push it's luck.

Deep in the Alaskan
mountains is a pioneering relic

from america's past.

This area really is remote,

it's a good couple of days
away from any major towns.

This setting is just epic.

You've got these
beautiful mountain peaks,

an enormous glacier.

Breaking up this rugged scene

is a collection of red buildings
tumbling down a hillside.

Everywhere you look you see
the ruins of industrial equipment,

you see cables and chains
and broken down machinery.

You realise this
is 14 storeys high.

This is on a big scale.

You can imagine living up here,
if you were a tough pioneer type,

but it is not an
easy place to live.

Two of america's best known
names made their fortunes here,

but prospecting in this wilderness
wasn't for the faint hearted.

Kyle thilbert is an alpine guide

and well used to exploring
these ghostly ruins alone.

It can get a little
spooky at time

walking through some of
these abandoned buildings

and knowing that you
are the only person

but you still hear things.

You know, those buildings
are starting to fall apart,

they're definitely
not quite safe enough

for us to go in to.

Yet some areas
are still accessible

and display the remnants
of a fully-fledged town.

This building here is the
post office and warehouse.

They had mail that was
delivered to this building here,

sorted, and distributed
throughout town.

These are the remains of a
town once known as kennecott.

Because the town is so remote,

they had to be
fully self-sufficient,

you can imagine everything
from food to parts to clothing.

At its peak,

kennecott had about
550 men on payroll.

So, what was it that
drew this many people

to such a remote outpost?

In 1900,

two men, tarantula Jack
Smith and Clarence l Warner,

made a discovery
that spawned a legend.

They stopped for lunch

and looked across the valley
and they saw this green patch.

And one of them said, "oh,
that might be good for sheep."

They scrambled up
the side of the mountain

and what they thought
was green vegetation

actually turned out
to be green rocks.

It's still credited

as one of the richest deposits
ever discovered in the world.

They made the bonanza discovery.

It's a bonanza,

where the words Smith and
Warner supposedly exclaimed

upon their discovery
of copper ore.

Copper was becoming a
very, very valuable commodity,

with the advent of electricity
copper was in high demand.

Getting it out of
the ground though

in this unforgiving landscape
was be no mean feat.

They needed investors

with very deep pockets
and they found them.

In 1905,

a group called the Alaska
syndicate was formed.

And it's members included

two of the richest and most
famous bankers in the world,

the guggenheim
brothers and jp Morgan.

They pooled their vast resources

to begin the process
of developing the mines.

Soon the bonanza mine was
connected to a processing mill

and the kennecott copper
mine was in full operation.

So, these cables here you see

run about 4.5 miles up
the Ridge land behind us

to the mines themselves.

Bringing those buckets loaded

with 500 to 600
pounds of copper ore.

You would have one bucket
coming down these lines

every 52 seconds.

So, in less than a minute

you would have to be
able to dump that ore,

get it back on the line

in just enough time to catch
the next one as it came off.

From here, the ore
needed to be sorted.

And this is where the vast height
and slope of the building came in.

You put the ore at the top,
you crush the big pieces,

and then you let gravity
carry it down level by level,

one crushing machine to another
until it's reduced to a fine sand.

When this building
was in operation,

the noise here would
have been deafening.

There was lots of equipment,
crushers, different machinery

that was separating
all that copper ore.

But excavating and
processing the ore

wasn't the biggest challenge
facing the Alaska syndicate.

There was no
railroad at that time,

but the buildings and
everything were operating

before that railroad came in.

So all that equipment was
bought in by hand essentially.

We're just under 200
miles to the coast from here.

So, you can imagine trying
to bring all that equipment in...

By either dog sled, pack horses.

It's amazing that they
could even get that here.

Guggenheim and Morgan

desperately needed a railroad
to get the copper to market.

They didn't start construction
on the railroad till 1907,

part of that was they couldn't
actually find anybody to build it.

Nothing of the scale or this
terrain had ever been done before.

It was a monumental
engineering challenge.

And it's pinnacle

was how to cross the
mighty copper river.

If your idea of a river is
something like the rivers you see

in most parts of the world,

you have no idea what
rivers in Alaska are like.

The most infamous crossing
was just below the miles glacier.

So, this glacier was
not only dumping out

millions and millions
of gallons of water,

but in the warmer
seasons it was dropping...

Huge icebergs in to the river
that would then flow down.

If one of those hits a pier,
which is supporting the trusses,

your whole bridge comes down.

So, to build that

was almost impossible really
by those standards at the time,

they didn't think
it could be done.

It costed well over million dollars
to build that one bridge alone.

Yet, the million dollar bridge,
as it was famously coined,

was just a fraction

of the overall cost of
building the railroad.

The Alaska syndicate
thought it worth the investment,

but they weren't alone.

While the Alaska syndicate

is busy building their own
route up to their mines,

there was another group
that claimed to have rights

to also build a route.

It got very heated.

It turned out that
the syndicate,

they didn't want anybody
else building a railroad line.

They were armed, they
wanted to keep them out.

One member of the syndicate crew

hid behind a Boulder
and really like a sniper,

he shot three men
from the other team.

Dubbed the keystone
canyon affair,

it made national headlines.

Jp Morgan and the
guggenheim brothers

were incredibly famous
in American culture.

I mean, today you'd
almost look at somebody

like a Mark Zuckerberg or
Elon Musk, they were celebrities.

And it was a huge
scandal legitimately,

it was cold blooded murder.

And in Alaska the
syndicate was viewed

very suspiciously
from that point on.

Yet this scandal
didn't stop them.

Having fended off the competition
and completed the railroad,

it seemed that nothing could stand in
the way of guggenheim and Morgan.

When the railroad
came in in 1911

they had enough ore stocked up

so they could fill
that very first train,

send it out with $250,000
worth of copper ore.

The mine was running

as one of the most
profitable in the world.

So, this building here was
the ammonia leaching plant

used to extract all that,

those little pieces of
copper ore that were left.

And with this building

they were running at
about 92% efficiency.

That's even by today's
standards is unheard of.

There were some years

where they made $32
million in that year alone.

By 1916, the price of
copper was climbing

and these mines were
running around the clock,

three shifts,

trying to get as much
copper out of these mountains

and in to the ships and
on to market as they could.

Yet, kennecott's fortunes
were tied to the global market,

and with the great depression
came plummeting copper prices.

In 1938 management prepared
to shut down operations.

The management knew

that things were probably
going to end up closing down

in the foreseeable future,

but they didn't
tell the men that

because they were afraid that
if they started warning people

that things were going
to start closing down,

work production
would start to decline.

So, to try to maximise
the amount of work

they could get out of these men,

they didn't tell
them until 24 hours

before that last train
was going to leave,

if you were not on that train,
you were gonna get left behind.

Almost overnight this
place became a ghost town.

Today, kennecott lives on through
hiking trails and guided tours,

which preserves
it's enduring legacy.

All that copper that
was produced here

was used to create
copper wiring,

to electrify the east coast, shell
casings during the world war.

Very crucial impact on the
United States and the world.

On Scotland's shetland isles
is a place that time forgot twice.

As you approach these
islands from the south,

you can see the remnants
of a very large stone building.

It's reminiscent of a castle
but that's not even the half of it.

The stone walls suggest a
structure that's hundreds of years old,

but at it's feet is
something far older.

You wind up in
these circular rooms,

all made out of blocks
piled up precariously

but there's no
mortar in use here.

And it feels as if, if
you knock one stone

over that the whole thing

is gonna come crumbling
down around you.

They really blend in to the
earth, they are part of the land.

It's a very organic form of
building and it really stands out.

The mixture of the
old and the ancient

suggests this place
had a long history.

But one more clue might
reveal how it became abandoned.

Slightly further away
from the main building

are these shallow
channels cut in to the ground.

Inside the smallest remains
lies the answer to this mystery,

and it's a story of
greed and bloodshed.

These men were highly advanced.

They were pushing the
limits of the known world

and they could be
extremely violent.

Archaeologist dr val Turner

knows the legend of this ruins
unscrupulous former owner.

This is the laird's house

and it became the
home or the possession

of Patrick Stewart,

who was the Earl of
orkney and shetland.

Patrick was the son
of Robert Stewart,

a man with connections.

He was the
half-brother of a queen

with one of the most
tumultuous reigns in history,

Mary queen of Scots.

Because the lairds
here in shetland

were so far from
royal authority,

their power was untrammelled.

And that meant when
they got out of line

there was nobody
to discipline them.

And these guys got out of line.

Patrick ruthlessly exploited
this power and freedom.

And as lord of shetland

he was notorious
for being barbarous,

rapacious, womanising, intimidating,
letting off criminals and murderers.

He found the perfect spot to
build a monument to his conquest,

to Mark his spot.

I think his quality of life
would have been very good,

because I mean, we
see it as bare walls,

but it would have
had ornate paintings,

hangings, tapestries.

It would have been
quite cosy and warm.

And, of course, he
would have had servants

and people working
for him as well.

But in the late 19th century,

it emerged that the laird
wasn't the first person

to recognise the
value of this bay.

In 1897 there was a huge storm.

And it lashed away at
the edge of the coast.

And a few days later...

Somebody walking
along the shore noticed

that there were the edges of...

What looked like buried
buildings poking out.

The storm uncovered dwellings
that predated the laird's house

by at least 1,000 years.

They were arranged
in a circular pattern

and made of layered stone.

But they also
partitioned these houses

in to a number
of cells or rooms.

And the local people
would have taken refuge

in these wheel
houses from the harsh

weather coming off of the sea,

possibly from their
harsh neighbours,

and it would have created
a feeling of community.

The wheel houses were built
by early settlers of shetland

known as the picts.

The picts were a native
Celtic tribe from the iron age,

who managed to make the journey
all the way from mainland Scotland

to the shetland islands.

That kind of journey

would take a
tremendous strength of will

and a tremendous
strength of arms.

It's 100 miles to the
nearest mainland,

and it's pretty much
a one-way journey,

because the way
the currents work

once you get here it's
going to be almost impossible

for you to get back
to the mainland.

Evidence of even earlier
structures suggest that defence

had long been a priority
on these rugged islands.

So, this is the base
of a massive tower.

And while that's the inner face,

just wait till you see
where the outer face is.

There's a cell which is
in between the two walls.

And the outer
face is right here.

So, all of that is the
base of the broch.

Two thousand years ago,
this tower stood 40 feet tall.

It had four levels for people,
animals, and a central hearth.

It was one of hundreds that
lined the shetland coastline,

a few still survive intact.

All over the north of
Scotland and the isles,

there are these
towers called brochs.

You can keep your children
safe, your babies safe

from other tribes

and you can sleep in comfort

knowing that nobody's
going to sneak up

and cut your
throat in the night.

But a new threat

would soon come across
the stormy seas to shetland.

A 1,000 years ago, strangers
landed on the shoreline.

Britain has had a
long history of invasion,

but these men were special
breed of professional plunderers.

They were highly skilled, had
complete mastery over the sea.

These invaders were vikings.

When the vikings arrived

in this part of the
shetland islands,

it's possible that the
picts were still here,

still living in their
traditional wheel houses.

But vikings did
things differently.

The viking long
houses are rectangular.

The area here is
where people lived.

And there were benches
on either side of the living,

feasting area,

which people would
have sat on in the day,

but then at night

there would have been
skins on the benches

and they would have been
where people slept as well.

If we look at the foundations
of this long house.

It reminds us of beowulf

where hrothgar lived
with his sword veins.

It reminds us of a smoky night

where grendel creeps
in through the door.

This wasn't just one
hut, this was a settlement.

One of hundreds that would lead

to the vikings conquering
two thirds of britain.

So, using these
incredible long ships

and their navigational skills,

they actually travelled

as far as the coast
of North America.

They also raided
and eventually settled

all along the coast
of Western Europe,

and then they travelled up
the rivers as far as Moscow.

We don't know what happened

to the native population of
shetland when the norse came.

It could be that instead of
keeping the locals as slaves

or marrying the local population,
could be they killed them all.

The last excavation of
jarlshof took place in the 1950s,

since then it has become

one of shetland's most
cherished artefacts,

but the fate of the native
picts remains a mystery.

So, what happened to the
vikings here in the shetland islands?

In some ways they
never went away.

The viking norse

were happy to leave
behind their descendants,

who still live there

as proud descendants
of vikings today.

And people feel a very
strong affinity with vikings.

And, of course, there's
a big viking festival

in shetland every January.

At this fire festival,

shetlanders take to the streets

with flaming torches and
burn a viking long boat.

And jarlshof remains the
most extensive norse site

visible in britain today.

High in the Swiss mountains
sits a pretty alpine village.

But for those in on the
secret, it's anything but.

The Swiss alps are beautiful.

It's lush, it's manicured.

You can wonder
across a Meadow here

and you see what look like
totally innocuous little cottages.

They could be summer huts,

they could be storage
barns for farming, and so on.

The reality though is
completely unexpected.

So, this isn't just a hut
or an animal shelter,

this is actually a
camouflaged Cannon,

10.5cm canon that
can turn 360 degrees

to be able to shoot
down in to the valley

or all the way around.

And there's four of these
in the village up here.

The little kind of hut is
just there for disguise.

It's for display purposes only,

and underneath it is a
serious amount of weaponry.

You start to realise,

no, this is not your average
bucolic Swiss pasture,

this is a killing field.

Someone's taken a lot of
time to hide this military site.

This hidden emplacement
is just the tip of the iceberg.

Another innocuous
looking building nearby

conceals an even bigger surprise

and explains the real
reason behind the disguises.

This isn't a barn, this
is actually a bunker,

concrete bunker,
that's part of the fortress.

One of the largest
fortresses ever built

in Switzerland is right here.

Masterfully hidden from view.

Behind the set dressing

of the cottages and
the stable blocks,

inside the mountain,
that's where the action is.

They dug the fortress
into the solid mountains.

We're talking about
five miles of tunnels,

it could hold around 500 troops.

Basically two storeys

of fortifications built in
to the side of a mountain

with 60 feet of rock

between the lower storey
and the upper storey.

This is fortress furggels.

A battleship hidden inside
the belly of a mountain.

Built from 1939,

this was Switzerland's response
to an increasingly volatile Europe.

This thing is not just a fort,
it's an ensemble of facilities.

You've got the fortifications,

you've got rooms for
storage of munitions,

you've got barracks
for the Garrison.

Dr erich breitenmoser is
now the fort's proud owner

and enjoys showing
off it's incredible array

of facilities and weaponry.

Here we are in the sleeping
quarters for the soldiers.

This room and the one next door

would house 120
soldiers for sleeping.

Troops could live here

completely shut off
from the outside world

for as long as six months.

And, of course, no fort is
complete without a good armament,

and this place was
bristling with good guns.

We have four 10.5cm guns,
which are up in the village,

and then we have four 15cm guns.

It was the most heavily
armed fortress in Switzerland.

They would tell you,

you know, how to set up the gun
and then give the command to shoot.

Ready, shoot, and the guy
would pull the thing over there,

boom, phew, the
shot would go off

and make the whole mountain
shook like an earthquake

when they shot the gun.

Trained soldiers would
use manuals and instruments

to expertly calculate
the trajectory of the shell,

but back in the day it was
far from an exact science.

They always waited
until the call came back

of where they hit the target
to see how accurate they were.

One day no radio message
came back, so they waited.

So, in...

So, when a phone call
came in from Liechtenstein

in the town of malbun,

they said there was a bomb
that hit right in front of the village.

What happened?

So, obviously somebody
made a mistake

so they found out
that the fellow here

did the wrong calculations

and we almost had
war with Liechtenstein.

Swiss neutrality is legendary,

but what distinguishes Switzerland
from other neutral countries

is Switzerland's policy
of armed neutrality,

meaning, you know,
don't mess with us.

But in the early 1940s,

two of Europe's dictators

were planning to
carve up the country

and share in the spoils.

Early in world war ii,

Italian dictator Mussolini
and German dictator Hitler

actually concocted a plan,

operation Tannenbaum
or 'Christmas tree',

in which Italian forces

would invade
Switzerland from the south,

German forces from the north,

they would partition the
country between them.

The fort was a crucial link

in Switzerland's
national fortification chain,

built in anticipation
of an access invasion.

Switzerland had sort
of decided early on

that it was going
to use its geography

as a key part of its defence.

They were going to
retreat in to the mountains

to a sort of hidden fortresses,

and that was like the
ultimate defence of the country.

But as a neutral country,

building a heavily
armed fort of this size

was treading a fine line.

They're not supposed to be
doing any military engineering,

but what they do do is
carry it out very, very quietly.

This place was very secret.

In fact, I've known
people worked here,

they wouldn't be
able to tell their wives

where they went to work.

This wasn't the only
reason for secrecy, though.

An important factor
as well about this place

was you could catch
the enemy by surprise.

If your guns are
hidden in the mountains,

then all of a sudden
there's massive firepower

that they weren't expecting.

There's no better example of
how the Swiss plan to control

the only serviceable
routes through the country

with fortifications
than this one.

They can watch, see
the Germans coming up

from the rhine valley down
there, from lake of constance

or from this side here...

From the San Bernardino
mountain pass from Italy.

So, they would be
protecting this whole area here

from then being able to go in
towards the Zurich over there.

These hidden mountain forts

were Switzerland's
ace up their sleeve,

but they had other
cards to play too.

They also had the entire
population armed for battle

in the event that the
Germans or Italians invaded,

all Swiss males were
armed and trained with rifles

and they would turn out
to defend their country.

Once the world war ii ended and
Switzerland survived unscathed,

they didn't reveal or
even disarm fort furggels.

Their attention
instead turned to a new

and potentially even
more destructive menace.

The cold war
immediately Springs up,

so all of these
world war ii era forts

were maintained and upgraded
for the event of a Soviet invasion.

The fortress itself was then
adapted with nuclear filters and so on.

And the unique
position of the fortress

made it an ideal
nuclear shelter.

Have to be able to
live here independently,

that means you
can't be depending

on a water line coming
from some place

'cause they cut the water off,

so they had their own
spring in the mountain

that fed these tanks.

The Swiss took this
nuclear threat so seriously

that fort furggels was still
top secret in the 21st century,

well after the cold
war had ended.

The fortress was
decommissioned in 2002

and the secret that was
hidden beneath this village

could be finally revealed.

With declassification,

the fort lost its
military significance,

but just before it closed
down, one final shot was fired.

The last time it was ever used,

one of the canons was actually
fired off to get rid of avalanches.

Today, the fort is
occasionally opened up

for small groups to explore
these fascinating relics.

Nowadays, you can wander around

and you can see the
barracks and the field hospital

and the ammo storage rooms,

and you can see the
canons in their turrets.

The constant cold
temperature here

now attracts new and
interesting tenants.

Lot of people are
enquiring about rooms

like this for storage, wine, be
a great wine storage, cheese.

I had a guy here
for cheese storage.

Fortress furggels' purpose

evolved to match
Switzerland's perception

of what posed
the greatest threat.

A peaceful furggels
full of wine and cheese

is good news for everyone.

(Music)

Captioned by
ai-media ai-media. TV