Châtelard Castle is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

of the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green bicolou ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History

The first "Châtelard", dating back to around the year 1000 , is the work of the Burgundians . There are practically no traces of this wooden building left. In 1295, La vidamie de Montreux (in the parish of Montreux) was purchased by Girard d'Oron from the Bishop of Sion . In 1317, Girard II ceded the part that would become ''Les Planches'' to the Count of Savoy while the lordship of Châtelard was retained; since that date and for the next 600 years, Châtelard was separated from Montreux . By marriage, it returned in 1338 to François, Baron de La Sarraz , bailiff of Vaud and Chablais. In 1352, Count Amédée VI of Savoy asked him to build a fortified castle to serve as a refuge in the event of an invasion. The construction was finally undertaken by Jean de Gingins , husband of Marguerite de La Sarraz, from 1440 to 1442 . In 1457, he confirmed the franchises of the parish of Montreux (1449). The castle was then pillaged and partially burned in 1476 during the Burgundian Wars by the army of Gruyère supported by Gessenay and Pays-d'Enhaut. The Gingins were stripped of their property. The estate then passed through several hands, including the town of Vevey between 1571 and 1573, to finally become the property of the Bernese Emmanuel Bondeli, who was bailiff of Aubonne. It remained in this family until the Vaudois revolution of 1798. Around the 1770s, the walls of the castle's great hall were decorated with a landscape, undoubtedly by the painter Gottfried Loche

Much later, the communes of Châtelard and Planches merged to form the commune of Montreux in 1961. The château was bought by the Fornerod family in 1983, then sold in 2015 to a Geneva investment fund.

Description

The castle is classified as a cultural property of national importance. It is presented as a cubic keep of masonry crowned with bricks, of an appearance identical to the Saint-Maire castle of Lausanne. It is located in the center of an estate, mainly wine-growing, of 29,000m ² from which a pinot noir called Grand cru Château du Châtelard Lavaux AOC is produced.

References

Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Vaud Castles in Vaud {{Switzerland-castle-stub

History

Description

See also

References