Château de Chillon

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Chillon Castle

The Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon) is located on the shore of Lake Geneva near Montreux, Switzerland. The castle consists of 25 independent buildings that were gradually connected and now form a single whole.

The oldest parts of the castle have not been definitively dated, but the first written record of the castle is in 1160 or 1005^[1]. From the mid 12th century, the castle was home to the Counts of Savoy, and it was greatly expanded in the 13th century by Pietro II.

It was made popular by Lord Byron, who wrote the poem The Prisoner Of Chillon (1816) about François de Bonivard, a Genevois monk and politician who was imprisoned there from 1530 to 1536. The castle in one of the settings in Henry James's novella Daisy Miller (1878).

It now hosts a museum with some historical objects preserved and is open to public tours.

[edit] Notes

^ According to publication Chillon by Auguste Guignard (former secretary of the Association for the Restoration of the Chillon Castle), published by Ruckstuhl SA (Renens, Switzerland) in 1996:

"The oldest historical document relating to Chillon bears the date 1005, and from this it is seen that the castle belonged to the bishops of Sion, who confided its care to the d'Alinge family."