Chillon Castle, Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland

 Chillon - A Small Castle

Lake Geneva

Castle Basics

Smaller castles, used for residence and defense, can be known as "chateaux" - or, a single one, a chateau.  Use a variety of names when researching a castles - add chateau.

Castles on the water, on peninsulas, or on islands, are particularly lovely. Water all around, or on three sides, is a military advantage to the defender. Some manufactured the defensive advantage of water by creating moats (many of those old moat areas are now gardens, or just depressions left when watercourses changed, or drained.

Chillon is still on its island in Lake Geneva, firmly built out of the rock foundation already there. Was it a peninsula? There is a bridge now.

Now:  a tour of some of the main rooms, courtyard, staircases, little doors for going where you don't want people to know you are going.... and the necessaries. Necessarily included.

Castle Chillon, an island now bridged, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Before electricity lighting up the water, it was easy to glide over to climb in. Bars on windows was a common sense defense, and did not signify a prison area inside.

Chillon Castle, View from the Prison at water level,above an unloading dock, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Pilfering: keep the keys on the manager's hip. Or was this a prison cell?  

 Courtyard and fortified storage area, perhaps prison off and on, Castle Chillon, Switzerland

Round towers came later as a defensive measure, and signify a newer addition.  Read an online discussion of the development at ://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum12/HTML/000483.html/. Apparently, the rectangular form persisted well after the 1200's. Some used the round form as a kind of trademark. And Romans used a rounded front sometimes.

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 Outer walls, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Escape hatches or hiding places.  We saw many floor-level indications of spaces beneath, with only the need for a crowbar in the iron ring to lift it.

 Escape hatch or treasure storage? Put a rug on top. Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Shapes of doors indicate function:  where it is desirable to keep armed people out, make the door too narrow for armor.  Where it is desirable to let someone in after hours, or to leave one's own chamber after hours, make a little door suitable for a quiet in and out. Or, let the person slip away to the pottie and back.

 Passageway door, to area between walls;  too narrow for armor, just slip in and slip out, Castle Chillon, Switzerland. Boudoir? Council room? We recall boudoir. Check for us.

Our idea of staircases folding into the attic is not a new one.  Here are folding castle stairs.

 Folding stairs, castle defense, Castle Chillon, Switzerland

 Courtyard staircase to battlements, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

A covered staircase was not only for weather, but also to shield from arrows, to a degree. Lattice-work allows a look at whoever is trying to climb up from the other angle.

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 Tower-top prison room, with manacles, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Prisons were not always below ground.  We saw prison confinements at the tops of towers.

 Castle toilet. Garderobe. A one-holer, lookig down to lake. The necessary. Chillon Castle, Switzerland. Also useful for invading climbers. Look before you sit.

Life's necessities.  Castle toilets. Garderobes. /.  See ://www.jamesmdeem.com/castlepage.toilets.htmThe idea of a one-holer or two-holer is not new.  In Sicily, see the sizable square room with one-holers all in a row on each side.  A family affair, no problem, and a special slot in Sicily at the Roman Villa for the handy stick on which a piece of disposable cloth or wool was attached for cleanliness, then let go, and the water flowed beneath - running water. Our medievals were not so pampered here in the towers.

  Chimney pots, baffles for cinders from fireplaces, Chillon Castle, Switzerland>

Letting ash fly into the air from the kitchen fires was dangerous, with wooden shingles on many roofs.  Chimney toppers, known as chimney pots, baffle the embers' flight enough for them to cool and die, flameless.

 A two-holer, more Necessaries, Chillon Castle, Switzerland (with guard)

Was this bar there originally? Perhaps, because it was possible - and considered a fine invasive maneuver - to grapple your way up the wall and into the castle this way.  Here is a Museum of Toilets, at ://www.sulabhinternational.org/pages/museum_toilets.php/  Here is Plumbing Information, including Turkish, Crusader, etc.  Go to ://www.theplumber.com/toilets-world.html/. Flatrock.org has more, but this is enough.

 A two-holer with arrow slit above for defense when not otherwise in use, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Chillon Castle tourist who thinks sensible castle plumbing is fun

Persuasion techniques.  Many castles have their old torture equipment around.  And the various Madame Tussaud's wax museums recreate it all.  This table, however, was different. Its pieces move and extend and contract and twist about.  Un-Cheyney us, please.

 Not fun. Torture table. Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Who was it from the US who put in an order a few years ago from the Chillon Grisley Catalogue? In 1348, Jews were accused of poisoning the water supply and causing Plague that broke out in Villeneuve. They, along with accused Christian accomplices, were tortured at Chillon. See ://switzerland.isyours.com/E/guide/lake_geneva/chillon.history.html/  But the site says they were tortured in the dungeon - the dungeon at Chillon is above water level, so the window is not inconsistent. First cause:  lack of understanding;  first resort:  go torture somebody.