Monday, July 20, 2009

Château de Chillon


Château de Chillon is one of the most picturesque castles in Switzerland. I've seen the outside before, but I've never actually visited it. And since I have a thing for brave knights I behaved quite affirmative when the idea of visiting the castle was discussed at yesterday's breakfast.

The setting is perfect, although there is a highway quite close to it, but when you're in the castle you hardly notice this.

Pilar (on the left on the picture below) mentioned that the building has exactly the right size to suit her needs. She is an architect and measured the dimensions of the bedroom of the Counts of Savoy and found out that it has the size of an average apartment in Switzerland and that it was bigger than the castle's chapel.


I was born and raised in a house that was built in 1613. That chest below was made in 1605. I was surprised to see similar decorative elements as in some furnitures and boiseries at my clan's residence.


The castle 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; Byron also carved his name on a pillar of the dungeon (to the poem).

2 comments:

Mickle in NZ said...

Beautiful, sigh, beautiful.

Unknown said...

Now you hit my heart. My lovely old place of residence... You know I never did visit the castle either until I came back for a visit in 2005 and there is so much to see!

But you actually managed not to see the tour while you were in the area???????