Chillon Castle inspired one of Byron’s most important poems – The Prisoner of Chillon. The underlying theme of this exhibition is Byron’s five-month stay in Switzerland from 20 May to 10 October 1816.

It highlighted many events, meetings and discoveries which had a major impact on his literary work.

The tour is purposely emotional, paying homage to a man whose talent so greatly marked his era and catapulted each of his publications to immediate stardom.

Documents, archives, objects and rare publications presented alongside rich and diverse images showed visitors the sheer scope of work left to us by Byron, a man who was a star two hundred years ago.

The exhibition had original and exceptional documents and objects on display, loaned by various prestigious institutions. Among these objects, we find the manuscript of ‘The Prisoner of Chillon’ copied out by Claire Clairmont, the first edition, as well as numerous original editions written by Lord Byron. The main documents exhibited came from, amongst others, the National Library of Scotland, Archives d’Etat de Genève (State of Geneva Archives), Archives cantonales vaudoises (Canton of Vaud Archives), Bibliothèque cantonale universitaire de Lausanne (Canton of Lausanne University Library) and numerous private collections.

With the ‘Alpine Journal’ as their guide, the public set off to follow in Lord Byron’s footsteps, on a quest for new emotions and to discover our Alpine landscapes. They really put themselves in the shoes of those first tourists who were enchanted by all the things there were to discover in Switzerland.