Show 1 f T I 1 made famous by byron castle of chillon immortalized by the glorious verses of the british poet i special correspondence by far the best known building in switzerland is the castle of chilian byron s on its famous prisoner pris has given it an undying celebrity which otherwise it would not have had for it is no more interesting in itself than many other buildings ol 01 the middle ages surviving in the swiss republic although perhaps the best specimen intact so exalted Is the place held by the castle of chillon in the minds of read ers ot byron and lovers of travel that thousands visit it yearly and look upon it as a sacred monument to the poet and to bonnivard the patriot who but for the chance detention of byron at an inn at a village on lake leman not far from chillon would long since have been forgotten byron improved his time while stormbound tor two dais by writing the prisoner of ch lion from a story he had heard in the course of a tour lars an iron ring Is shown and near it the floor Is worn doubtless by a prisoner who may have been bonal vard in beamut ful S chillon stands at the last end 0 the lake of leman the city of geneva being at the west end forty mile away on the south rise the sheer precipices ani snowy peaks of the aps beyond which Is italy through a gorge ohp railroad comes down aiom the back of chillon alter its ascent t the south along the lal e end are various de summer resorts which derive much business rom their proximity to ahll on beyond the Is a hotel byron which did not exist in brons da the inn at which the poet wrote ahli lines on chillon is a dozen miles away and has been modernized ests visit to the castle at the time he thought the story a myth and he did not even know the name ot the prisoner whose sufferings he made the subject ol 01 his glorious verse after the publication of the poem the author learned ot the name and char acter ol 01 bonnivard and added a pre limi pary sonnet to the poem in which bonnivard s name Is used both sonnet and poem are too well known to need extended quotation here except so tar as the lines relate to the castle in the sonnet the con eluding lines are ch lion thy prison Is a holy place and thy sad floor an altar tor trod until his ery steps have left a trace worn as if thy cold pavement were a sod by bonnivard may none those marks efface for they abeal from tyranny to god the marks on the stone floor of the cell supposed to have been occupied by bonnivard a depression worn by his feet are still carefully preserved and religiously shown poem not true to facts in the poem the prisoner Is rep resented as having two of his seven brothers to share his fate and seeing them die in chains As a matter of tact he was alone and had consider able freedom of action after the first halt of his imprisonment the verses run I 1 there are seven pillars of gothic mold I 1 in chillon s dungeons deep and cold there are seven columns massy and gray dim with a dull imprison d ray and in each pillar there Is a ring and n each ring there Is a chain they chain d us each to a column stone and were three yet each alone the situation of the castle is thus described A chousa d feet in depth below lake leman lies by chillon s walls its massy waters meet and flow thus much the fathom line was sent from chillon s snow white battlement this Is the broades poetic 1 cense for the water beside the castle is vaults n castle low and only at some distance from the shore is a depth of feet at talked the greatest depth in any part of the lal e is but 1 feet the poet described the prisoner s dungeon thus below the surface 0 the lake the dark vault lies wherein we lay we heard t ripple night and day this again is an example of tha poets license as the dark vault is not below the level of the lake but slightly above it and is not a dungeon at all but a rather spacious apartment of crypt like architecture with two rows of pillars but having windows to ward the water from which on fine days the sun is reflected to the stone elling of the rea one of the pil t t ala baft f and spoiled as a souvenir of the poet chillon Is a very ancient castle its origin Is obscure but as early as 1238 it was mentioned as a stronghold of the dukes of savoy its architecture remains at it was in the thirteenth century judicious restoration Is going on in its various rooms under government direction and it Is being fitted as a national museum some of its ancient devices for torture are still preserved and show the sinister spirit of the times in which it was used as a state prison identity of the prisoner it was one ot the line 0 fighting dukes of savoy who was imprisoned here in 1530 the prior of a religious order at geneva called francois de bonnivard who by his political ac and by bearing arms against savoy then a powerful dukedom had made himself objectionable to the rul ers thereof bonnivard remained in the castle of chillon until 1536 when the place was taken by an army ot swiss patriots who liberated him and the other prisoners some of the best lines in byron s poem describe the prisoner s sensa alons on being liberated as follows my very chains and I 1 grew friends so much a long communion tends to make us what we are even I 1 regain d my freedom with a sigh history shows that bonnivard rei gained his freedom with a strong de sire tor action he repaired at onca to geneva where he espoused taft protestant faith married within a few years four times founded a library which exists to this day and wrote a history of geneva |