Söderto Fortress

Söderto Fortress is a building just off the road outside the village of Hörby in Skåne. This was the home of a local man, Karl-Göran Perssons, who after reading the Cold War era pamphlet If the War Comes was struck by a fear of the Russian army invading his homeland.

Perssons started rebuilding and reinforcing his house with whatever pieces of metal he could find to build a fortress capable of withstanding an attack from the Red Army. The wall facing east was made thicker because of the likelihood of an attack from that direction.

He did not only build the fortress for himself, there was room for everyone in the village should the war come. He even prepared a separate room for the Swedish king at the time, Gustav VI Adolf, who could need protection in case of an invasion according to Karl-Göran.

The war never came during Perssons’s lifetime, but his home and lifetime project is still left in the southern Swedish countryside as a monument to his determination and big heart.