Chillon Castle

A castle on a small steep-sided limestone island that pushes out into Lake Geneva between Montreux and Villeneuve, and among the most visited medieval castles in Europe. Its position is the whole point: it guards the passage between the Vaud Riviera, opening north towards Germany and France, and the Alpine valley of the Rhône. The House of Savoy held it, then the Bernese from 1536 until 1798; it now belongs to the canton of Vaud. The name is thought to come from a Waldensian word for a flat stone or platform.