Bunker research: The hidden history of modernism in the mountains

In southern France, high above the villas and the pleasure palaces of the Côte d’Azur, there is the Alpine Extension of the Maginot Line. These little-known fortifications were built before the Second World War to protect France from Mussolini. But nobody has successfully invaded over the Alps since Hannibal and his elephants, and things didn’t quite turn out as the French expected.

Now, the bunkers are marooned, forlorn and crumbling, in some of the most beautiful and remote parts of France. They are disappearing into the landscapes they once commanded, stray facts from a future passed, still waiting for an onslaught that never came.

Max Leonard, Camille Macmillan

Isola Press, 2024

23 X 17 cm, 120 pages