· Castles & Palaces · 2 min read ·
Chillon Castle: Medieval Island Fortress on Lake Geneva
Island castle near Montreux, Switzerland. Rising out of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps, celebrated by Lord Byron and preserved through eight centuries of history.
Castle in Veytaux, Switzerland
Chillon Castle (French: Château de Chillon, pronounced [ʃɑto d(ə) ʃijɔ̃]) is a medieval island castle located on Lake Geneva, south of Veytaux in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It is situated at the eastern end of the lake, on the narrow shore between Montreux and Villeneuve, which gives access to the Alpine valley of the Rhône. Chillon is amongst the most visited medieval castles in Europe. Successively occupied by the House of Savoy, then by the Bernese from 1536 until 1798, it now belongs to the canton of Vaud and is classified as a Swiss Cultural Property of National Significance.
According to the Swiss ethnologist Albert Samuel Gatschet, the name Chillon derives from the Waldensian dialect and means “flat stone, slab, platform”. The name Castrum Quilonis, attested from 1195, would, therefore, mean “castle built on a rock platform”.
The castle of Chillon is built on the island of Chillon, a small, steep-sided oval limestone rock that advances into Lake Geneva between Montreux and Villeneuve. The placement of the castle is strategic: it guards the passage between the Vaud Riviera, which allows access to the north towards Germany and France, and the Rhone valley, a quick route to Italy, and offers a viewpoint over the Savoyard coast on the opposite side of the lake. A garrison could thus control (both militarily and commercially) the access to the road to Italy and apply a toll.
Chillon has been a military site since the central Middle Ages and the development of the current castle spans three periods: the Savoy Period, the Bernese Period, and the Vaudois Period.
