Castles & Palaces
Switzerland castle landscape

11 historic sites

Castles in Switzerland

Chillon on Lake Geneva and the Rhine castles of the north define Switzerland's dramatic fortress landscape.

Castel Grande's Torre Bianca and Torre Nera above Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland
UNESCO

switzerland · Ticino

Castel Grande

The largest of the Three Castles of Bellinzona — a UNESCO gateway to the Alps

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Castello di Montebello's round Venetian towers above Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland
UNESCO

switzerland · Ticino

Castello di Montebello

The most complete of the Three Castles of Bellinzona, with round Venetian towers above the Ticino valley

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Castello di Sasso Corbaro's compact keep on its isolated rock spur above Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland
UNESCO

switzerland · Ticino

Castello di Sasso Corbaro

Built in six months on Ludovico il Moro's orders — the highest and most solitary of the Three Castles of Bellinzona

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The leaning Zytturm tower of Burg Zug above the old town, Switzerland

switzerland · Canton of Zug

Zug Castle

A leaning medieval tower at the heart of the world's wealthiest small canton

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Oberhofen Castle (Schloss Oberhofen) rising from the southern shore of Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland — the neo-Gothic towers of the 1849–52 Pourtalès renovation reflected in the Alpine lake

switzerland · Canton of Bern, Bernese Oberland

Oberhofen Castle

The storybook castle rising from Lake Thun — a medieval Habsburg fortress transformed by the Pourtalès family in 1849 into a romantic vision of chivalric architecture, now a branch of the Historical Museum of Bern

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Spiez Castle (Schloss Spiez) on its vineyard peninsula on Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland — the medieval keep, Romanesque church, and Baroque New Castle wing above the south-facing vineyard slopes

switzerland · Canton of Bern, Bernese Oberland

Spiez Castle

A 1,000-year-old vineyard, a Romanesque church, and a Baroque château on a Lake Thun peninsula — Spiez Castle is the most compositionally layered site on one of Switzerland's most beautiful lakes

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The Château de Prangins above Lake Geneva, a well-proportioned 18th-century Swiss château surrounded by its estate grounds and vineyards

switzerland · Vaud

Château de Prangins

Napoleon's brother took refuge here; today it is Switzerland's national museum for the Francophone world, with a kitchen garden that grows vegetables extinct elsewhere

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Rapperswil Castle on its Lake Zurich promontory — the 13th-century Swiss castle above the Rose City's rose gardens, housing the Polish Museum Rapperswil since 1930, with the wooden bridge visible at the narrows

switzerland · St. Gallen canton, Lake Zurich (Obersee)

Rapperswil Castle

Switzerland's Rose City castle and Poland's Swiss museum — the 13th-century fortress on Lake Zurich's narrows that has housed the Polish Museum Rapperswil since 1930, preserving a century of Polish exile culture above one of Switzerland's most photographed lakeside views

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Château de Chillon rising from Lake Geneva with the Swiss Alps reflected in the still water

switzerland · Vaud

Château de Chillon

A medieval castle on a lake island — the setting that inspired Byron, Hugo and Rousseau

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Aigle Castle surrounded by the Chasselas vineyards of the Chablais — the 13th-century Bernese Gothic fortress at the mouth of the Rhône Valley, home to the Vine and Wine Museum

switzerland · Vaud — Aigle, Chablais, mouth of the Rhône Valley above Lake Geneva

Aigle Castle

A moated 13th-century fortress rising from the vineyards of the Chablais — home to the Vine and Wine Museum

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Munot circular Renaissance fortress above the Rhine and Schaffhausen old town in Switzerland

switzerland · Schaffhausen

Munot Fortress

Switzerland's most beautiful Renaissance fortress — a cylindrical bastion above the Rhine Falls city

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