The eerie backstory behind Switzerland's 370,000 bunkers hidden across the country

Switzerland has gorgeous geography and sights to see - but you might not realize what's underneath the surface.

In fact, the country is secretly dotted with tens of thousands of underground bunkers.

You wouldn't know about these unless you went looking, but there are reportedly around 370,000 underground bunkers in the country.

Why? Well, according to Swiss Info, which is part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, it's because in 1962 the country enacted a law that entitled every single one of its citizens to a square meter of safe space in an underground refuge.

This was at the height of the Cold War, and nearly twenty years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons, so the fear of nuclear annihilation was a more clear and present one than it might be today.

Genyphyr Novak / Getty

This has resulted in widespread bunkers throughout Switzerland, with an estimated $13.2 billion having been spent on them since the law was passed.

Not all of these bunkers are centralized locations for people to gather, either - many of them are simply well-buried basements under private homes or blocks of flats.

This divide between public shelters and private ones tends to vary between jurisdictions, much like garbage collection might from one town to another in the US.

Amazingly, in fact, it turns out that there are currently more slots in bunkers than there are Swiss residents - according to Swiss Info, in late 2022 the Federal Office for Civil Protection reported there were 9.3 million spots in nearly 370,000 shelters for approximately 8.7 million people.

If you think this sounds like the sort of thing that might be a lower priority now, though, you'd be wrong. Only last year, in 2023, the Federal Office for Civil Protection announced it would move onto a new phase that prioritized communal and public shelters over private ones that could only hold a handful of people.

And it's not just for protection from nuclear war, but also available 'in the case of disasters and emergencies, for example increased radioactivity, an earthquake or an acute risk of an avalanche'.

To delve into this further, YouTuber Johnny Harris produced something of a documentary on the subject of Swiss bunkers in late 2022, managing to visit some and get a look at what they're like.

It's a fascinating glimpse into part of Swiss life that you wouldn't necessarily know about - and it feels more relevant than ever given the recent success of Amazon Prime's Fallout show, which features the idea that people might survive a nuclear apocalypse by gathering together in massive underground facilities called Vaults.

Maybe that's a more realistic possibility than you might have thought - if you're Swiss, at least.