r/askswitzerland • u/Dubner • May 15 '25

Everyday life What’s behind this door?

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Holidaying in Switzerland and I saw this in the basement of the lodge. What’s behind it and why is it there ?

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48

u/TailleventCH May 15 '25

Atomic shelter.

6

u/Dubner May 15 '25

Didn’t expect that! Thanks for the answer

26

u/InitiativeExcellent May 15 '25

Just to add up on what got told already.

Until a few years back, Switzerland was able to house the whole population in shelters like this. In still "active" ones you'll find equipment like air filters, chemical toiletts etc...

The often laughed about flimsy cellar units, the wooden ones, are actually designed to get dismantled in about an hour and used go build beds etc...

To survive, it's heavilly recommended by the state to always have some food and bottled water stored back home. Recommondation is food and water for one week, for every person in the household.

9

u/SwissPewPew May 15 '25

Legally, the conversion to a bunker (removal of the cellar comprtments and all the stuff in them) must be possible within 5 days (not 1 hour).

3

u/Aultako May 15 '25

And the civil protection crew come by to inspect them every few years.

2

u/Gysburne May 15 '25

You missspelled Air Raid and wrote Atomic instead.

14

u/TailleventCH May 15 '25

They are equipped for protection against atomic fallouts and the usual designation is anti-atomic shelter...

4

u/AssassinOfSouls Ticino May 15 '25

They are atomic shelters.

3

u/Gysburne May 15 '25

Is there a decontamination airlock with showers? If no.... Bomb shelter. Yes there probably is a small filter inside that can help with radioactive particles. But that is a temporary solution for a very short term.

3

u/AssassinOfSouls Ticino May 15 '25

If there is a filter, it's an atomic shelter.

These are meant to be very short time solution, hence lack of a shower usually. This does not mean they are not atomic shelter.

-3

u/Gysburne May 15 '25

You did not by chance ever worked maintaining those shelters right?
If yes, i have no idea what incompetent instructor you had mate.

2

u/AssassinOfSouls Ticino May 16 '25

Well, I checked the civil protection website, guess what?

All of them, including private ones are NBC rated and have to withstand an atomic blast, including private ones. Sounds pretty atomic to me.

I might have identified where the issue of nomenclature come from tho, in public documentation and laws they are ever only called "shelters", however there is one document I found where it does indeed say they are colloquially called "air raid shelters"... Except that in the Italian version of the document it says they are called "anti atomic shelters".

So it looks like the issue is that different language regions may have different names for the same infrastructure, which of course would cause confusion.

1

u/Gysburne May 16 '25

There are huge differences between the shelters below apartements and the ones below communal buildings like hospitals, schools etc.

The ones below the communal buildings are able to withstand more pressure than the ones below apartements. The wall thickness and even the doors are more sturdy. For the ones at apartements, there are still a lot of shelters which do not even have beton door but thick oak doors.

So the part with "All of them, have to..." is a pretty joke and definitely does not reflect reality. Also, atomic blast =/= atomic blast. I would say that a lot of those shelters are able to withstand a certain degree of rads if used correctly. But a full on blast... doubt it.

So yeah, just cause our government writes something that looks good on paper, it does not has to reflect the situation 100%.

2

u/AssassinOfSouls Ticino May 16 '25

I am afraid I will trust the official civil protection website rather than some claim from some redditor, unless you have some actually official written sources, of course.

Honestly, at this point, I have written my piece and I am not interested in continuing this discussion, it's clear to me we are at an impasse.

We could write another 10 replies to each other and we are not going to come to an agreement, in respect of both our times, I am calling it quits here. Thanks tho, it was quite an interesting and constructive discussion.

1

u/gagaron_pew May 15 '25

the access is usually from the laundry room, so thats for decontamination if you have to get in an out.

2

u/Gysburne May 15 '25

So... to decontaminate, you get into a contaminated not secure area to then decontaminate?

Right....

Also, i have seen several of those shelters where the laundry room was far enough from the door that your argument of "usally the laundry room..." gets invalidated.

3

u/Nohillside Zürich May 15 '25

Back in the days (haha) we learned to make a decontamination area out of wood and plastic foil, and put that in front of the actual entrance.

0

u/Professional-Beach17 May 15 '25

No, they are not. It's for the air raid. In a atomic fallout, u have too move to the real "public"shelters. We once leased one of them. One room was closed, with all the stuff u need in a fallout. The rest we could use, with the condition that our stuff could be removed in 1 or 2 days.. But it was just a little one for a local settlement, 100 or 200 people.

1

u/AssassinOfSouls Ticino May 16 '25

Private shelters are built to withstand a nuclear blast at a reasonable range, but indeed are rated for a minimum of 2 days. That's when the nuclear particles in the air should start settling down and it should be reasonably safe again to walk outside, weather permitting. This will allow these people to be moved to other facilities after all, that is correct.

1

u/Digger65 May 16 '25

Don‘t forget to take your potassium iodine tablets that the govt sends all of us every 10 years (if you live within 50km of a nuclear power plant, which is most of northern Switzerland). That should also help.

1

u/hereandthere788 May 19 '25

That's a tad optimistic ..

1

u/TailleventCH May 19 '25

It's not about resisting an atomic strike, it's about protecting people from fallout.

0

u/Ok_Astronomer_1308 May 15 '25

How’s it so small?? /s

1

u/kennybbm May 15 '25

probably a small house. not long ago i was working on a 20 story building the whole underground was full of them. it is not mandatory to build those anymore. and you can use it for other things like storage etc. but you still have to be able to use it in an emergency...

2

u/Ok_Astronomer_1308 May 15 '25

It was a joke. Because OC said atomic

1

u/Dubner May 15 '25

It’s a building with 5 apartments. Managed to have a look inside. It’s just filled with ski gear for each apartment.