Prangins Castle
The Prangins Castle is a Baroque castle in the municipality Prangins in Vaud canton in Switzerland. It was built on the ruins of an older system from 1732 by an unknown architect for the French banker Louis Guiguer. Since 1975 it is owned by the Swiss Confederation and hosts since 1998 the seat of the Swiss National Museum (SNM ) in the Romandie.
History
Mansion and castle Prangins before 1719
The original castle on the site of today's castle was in the Middle Ages the center of a dominion that stretched from Mont le Vieux to the Pays de Gex. The earliest known owner of the reign were the masters of Cossonay, of which 1281 one sideline after Prangins called (→ Prangins ( noble ) ). They owned the town of Nyon as a fief from the Archdiocese of Besançon. Their coat of arms pointed in gold on a black eagle.
Aymon of Cossonay - Prangins (1267-1306) came into conflict with the distinguished family of the Counts of Savoy, as Count Amadeus V extended his power over Lake Geneva. In June 1293 Aymon lost city of Nyon, and finally had to resign in 1294 for a severance payment of 50 pounds of silver and a life pension, the rule of Savoy. After the recognition of the supremacy of Savoy by the Count and the Bishop of Geneva and the Dauphin of Viennois thus ruled Savoy the whole region around Lake Geneva.
Amadeus V. handed the rule Prangins to his brother Louis of Savoy, whom he had used as a master of the Vaud. The rule and the castle Prangins changed as a result very often the owner: in 1361 she went to d' Aymon Urtières, 1369 at Iblet de Challants, 1409 at Aymon de Viry, 1428 Jean de Compois to 1529 George de Rive. 1536 captured the city of Bern Vaud, where the old castle Prangins was burnt down. However, the rule Prangins remained and the Bernese bailiwick Nyon was assumed. 1552 was the rule in the hands of Hans von Berners This Bach, whose legacy they sold 1627 Emilia of Nassau. Later, the property changed hands several times until it was bought in 1719 by Louis Guiguer. The rule or double the barony of Prangins included then about the territories of today's communities Prangins, Vich and England.
History of modern Prangins
Louis Guiguer (originally Gyger ) was a French banker, whose family originally came from Bürglen TG. As a textile merchant in the Guiguers Lyon had come to wealth. Due to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 Guiguers lost some of their assets, so probably got in the banking business with his cousin Jean -Claude Louis Tourton Guiguer. The Bank " Tourton et Guiguer " was very successful and lasted until the 19th century. 1717 Louis Guiguer retired from the banking business, and in 1723 took over the rule Prangins. After his reign, he called himself Baron Louis de Guiguer Prangins. 1732-1739 he left by an unknown architect, the new Prangins Castle invest.
His son, Jean -Georges Guiguer Prangins over left the castle in winter 1754/55 the French philosopher Voltaire as a refuge. Later, he himself took up residence with his second wife and left the castle install a chapel and expand the gardens generous. His grandson, Charles- Jules Guiguer Prangins was actively involved in the liberation of Vaud from the Bernese rule in 1798. He made a career in the service of the Helvetic Republic and later in the newly created Swiss Army. He sold the castle in 1814 to Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon.
Joseph Bonaparte left the castle renovated in the summer of 1814, probably because he set himself up to a longer exile after the fall of his brother. Until the return of Napoleon from Elba Prangins was for a short time to a conspiratorial center of the imperial loyal Frenchmen, to pressure from the Allies, the Swiss Confederation ordered the arrest of Joseph. This eluded by fleeing to access his enemies. After the recent fall of Napoleon, Joseph emigrated to the United States and attempted through an agent for a long time in vain to sell the now dilapidated castle Prangins.
1827 the castle came to Marie- Madeleine - Gentil Chavagnac. Your heirs divested the entire domain in 1873. The Castle went to the Moravian Church, which set up an education institute for boys and young men in the buildings. The castle itself has changed a lot in the interior to suit the new use. Another part of the domain, the Bergerie, went to Prince Louis Bonaparte. After 1920 Prangins again changed hands several times. First, it was purchased by the Geneva Horace de Pourtàles and had it converted back into a private residence. But in 1929 he had already re- sell to the American Josephine Dexter. Their daughter, Katherine McCormick, wrote about the castle in 1962 to the Government of the United States who wanted there to set up the residence of its ambassador to the UN in Geneva. After the death of Katherine McCormick 1967, the U.S. government sold Prangins but to Bernard Cornfeld, who in turn passed on ownership of two million francs to the cantons of Geneva and Vaud on 19 July 1974.
1975 gave the cantons of Geneva and Vaud Prangins the Swiss Confederation order to set up the Western Swiss seat of the Swiss National Museum. By 1998, the castle was restored and rebuilt for the new purpose as a museum and expanded. In June 1998, the museum was opened on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Museum. The permanent exhibitions show objects and art from the history of Switzerland in the 18th and 19th centuries.