Châtelard Castle with Fountain: A Fortified Keep in Montreux, Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Savoy, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Châtelard Castle with fountain is a medieval fortified castle in Clarens, within the municipality of Montreux, Switzerland. Its first wooden stronghold, attributed to the Burgundians, dates to around the year 1000, while the surviving masonry castle was built between 1440 and 1442 as a late medieval keep.
Early lordship and Savoyard control
The first Châtelard was a wooden building associated with the Burgundians, a Germanic people whose name became linked to the historical region of Burgundy. In 1295, Girard d’Oron purchased the vidamie of Montreux from the Bishop of Sion. A vidamie was a medieval ecclesiastical lordship administered on a bishop’s behalf by a vidame.
In 1317, Girard II ceded the part that later became Les Planches to the Count of Savoy, while retaining the lordship of Châtelard. Châtelard therefore remained separate from Montreux for approximately 600 years. Through marriage, the lordship passed in 1338 to François, Baron of La Sarraz and bailiff of Vaud and Chablais. A bailiff was an administrative and judicial official who governed a territorial district for a higher lord or state.
Construction and the Burgundian Wars
In 1352, Count Amédée VI of Savoy requested the construction of a fortified castle that could provide refuge during an invasion. The later masonry castle was built by Jean de Gingins, the husband of Marguerite de La Sarraz, between 1440 and 1442. In 1457, Jean de Gingins confirmed the franchises granted to the parish of Montreux in 1449.
In 1476, during the Burgundian Wars, the army of Gruyère, supported by Gessenay and Pays-d’Enhaut, pillaged and partially burned the castle. The Burgundian Wars were late-fifteenth-century conflicts involving the Duchy of Burgundy, the Swiss Confederacy, and their allies. The Gingins family was stripped of its possessions after the attack.
Later ownership and Montreux
The estate passed through several owners after the Gingins family lost its possessions. The town of Vevey held it between 1571 and 1573, after which it became the property of Emmanuel Bondeli, a Bernese bailiff of Aubonne. The Bondeli family retained the castle until the Vaudois Revolution of 1798, a political upheaval that ended the old ruling order in the canton of Vaud.
Around the 1770s, the walls of the great hall received a landscape decoration attributed to Gottfried Locher, an eighteenth-century Swiss painter. The communes of Châtelard and Les Planches merged in 1961 to form the commune of Montreux. The Fornerod family purchased the castle in 1983, and a Geneva investment fund acquired it in 2015. Châtelard Castle is classified as a Swiss cultural property of national significance.
Remains
Châtelard Castle is a cubic masonry keep crowned with brick. Its appearance is described as identical to that of Saint-Maire Castle in Lausanne, a historic castle in the capital of the Canton of Vaud. The keep stands at the center of a predominantly wine-growing estate covering 29,000 square metres.
Keep and wine-growing estate
The castle’s compact cubic form and masonry construction reflect its role as a fortified refuge. The surrounding estate remains principally devoted to vineyards and produces Pinot Noir marketed as Grand Cru Château du Châtelard Lavaux AOC. AOC, or appellation d’origine contrôlée, is a regulated designation linking a product to a defined geographical area and specified production standards.
Great hall decoration
The great hall preserves a landscape decoration added around the 1770s. The painting is attributed to Gottfried Locher and represents a later artistic phase within the medieval castle’s fabric.
