Château de Chillon (Chillon Castle)

Jutting out off the shore of Lake Geneva, close by the French border, Switzerland’s most fairytale-like castle is a vision of Gothic grandeur, entirely encircled in water and reachable via the reconstructed remains of an ancient drawbridge.

The medieval Château de Chillon (Chillon Castle) features rounded turrets, sloping roofs and an impressive roman fortification system, as well as housing a fascinating network of passageways, rooms and outhouses behind its picturesque facade. The some 300,000 annual visitors can explore the castle grounds, as well as its renowned dungeons, famously immortalized in a Lord Byron poem whose words ring true to form in the dark and eerily lit cells.