“What are you talking about…?”: If he could, Alberto Sordi would comment with one of his thunderous laughs on the news about him that appeared today in some Swiss media. In the 1960s, the Swiss government became convinced that the actor may have stolen military secrets and therefore refused him permission to purchase land in the tourist resort of Andermatt.
The documents come from the archives of the canton of Uri and were discovered by the Swiss director Felice Zenoni. Making the story known, not without a touch of amusement.
This is the reconstruction of the facts. In 1962, Alberto Sordi decided to treat himself to a holiday home in the mountains, choosing land in the municipality of Andermatt, a renowned ski resort on the slopes of the Gotthard. The purchase appears to be a done deal; the municipality of Andermatt and the canton of Uri have no objections.
What ruins the deal? An aspect that receives little attention and is hardly known to those who do not know Switzerland. The Gotthard area and the canton of Uri are considered strategic from a military point of view, there are facilities and bases in the area surrounding the massif, a bunker was even dug in the middle of the rock, which serves as a kind of “headquarters”. So it is the army, which stands between Alberto Sordi and his project of a house in the snow.
Some eager officials point out that Sordi, a foreign citizen, could pass confidential information to Italy about the presence of military installations in Andermatt and the surrounding area. Bern “stops” the sale for “reasons of state”. These are the years of the Cold War, these are the years in which Switzerland's neutrality and confidentiality appear as an unshakable dogma and provide a framework for events.
According to the documents now available, there was also a legal dispute in the matter. A lawyer pointed out the absurdity of the assumption: any tourist among the thousands who visited the area could have noticed the presence of the military installations. But the alliance remained steadfast and rejected Sordi's arrival in Andermatt.