Chateau De Chillon, Lake Geneva

PhotographerGeorges Berteaux

CountryFrance

MediumCollotype

JournalThe Photographic Times: 1894: January-June

AtelierMeriden Gravure Company (Meriden, CT)

Year1894

View Additional Information & Tags

Architecture, Landscape, Lake

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 13.2 x 18.4 cm Feb. 9, 1894: Vol. XXIV, No. 647
Support Dimensions: 21.5 x 29.0 cm


The following editorial comment regarding this plate appears on p. 83:

 

EDITORIAL NOTES.

The Chateau De Chillon, which is the subject of our frontispiece to this issue, is a most interesting and historical edifice standing between Clarens and Villeneuve near the extremity of the lake Geneva. The chateau is large and on account of its walls being white can be seen along the lake for a considerable distance. On its left are the entrances of the Rhone, and opposite tower the ranges of the Alps. The lake just below the castle is exceptionally blue in color, possibly owing to its extreme depth; in parts bottom has only been reached at 800 feet. At the commencement of the 16th century the castle was utilized as a prison for the early reformers and later for prisoners of state. The most notable of these was Francois de Bonnivard, immortalized by Lord Byron in his “Prisoner of Chillon,” who spent so many years in one of the dungeons that his footsteps in pacing his cell have left their traces in the pavement which remain to the present day. It is by this castle that Rousseau has fixed the catastrophe of Heloise on the rescue of one of her children by Julie from the water. The shock of this and the illness produced by the immersion was the cause of her death.
For this fine picture we are indebted to the kindness of Monsieur Berteaux of Neuelley. The reproduction has been made from a platinotype print by the Meriden Gravure Co.

Chateau De Chillon,  Lake Geneva