Fortress Saint-Maurice is one of the three main fortification complexes comprising the Swiss National Redoubt. The westernmost of the three, Fortress Saint-Maurice complements Fortress Saint Gotthard and Fortress Sargans to secure the central alpine region of Switzerland against an invading force. The National Redoubt was first conceived in the 1880s as an easily defensible area to secure the survival of the Swiss Confederation. In the late 1930s and 1940s when neutral Switzerland was threatened with invasion from Germany, the National Redoubt and its components were modernized and expanded on a massive scale. The fortification system was maintained and upgraded during the Cold War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the possibility of a Warsaw Pact invasion disappeared, and by 1995 many positions were abandoned by the military.