Tourbillon Castle



Tourbillon Castle (French: Château de Tourbillon) is a castle in Sion in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is situated on a hill and faces the Basilique de Valère, located on the opposite hill. The castle was ruined in a fire in 1788.

History
Tourbillon Castle was built sometime between 1290 and 1308 by the Bishop of Sion, Boniface de Challant, as his principal residence. A large part of the castle was destroyed by the Patriots of the Valais in 1416. The castle was then rebuilt in 1477 by Bishop Guillaume VI of Raron, wanting to build a chapel and an exterior wall built with battlements. In later centuries, the military importance of the castle decreased, and in 1788, a gigantic fire in Sion reduced the castle to ashes. Fifteenth-century frescoes in the chapel were damaged but survive.