Jazz, Chillon Castle, and a lake promenade where Freddie Mercury stands forever
Montreux sits at the eastern end of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) where the Rhône valley begins and the Alps close in, creating a microclimate mild enough to grow palm trees and magnolias on the lakeside promenade. The town is inseparable from the Montreux Jazz Festival — since 1967 one of the world's greatest music events — and from Freddie Mercury, who spent the final decade of his life here recording and whose bronze statue watches the lake from the casino promenade. Château de Chillon, a 12th-century island fortress just 3km south, inspired Lord Byron's poem 'The Prisoner of Chillon' and remain…
Montreux's Belle Époque golden age began when the railway arrived in 1861, making it accessible from Paris and London and triggering a hotel-building boom that gave the promenade its grand 19th-century townhouses. The literary connections are extraordinary: Byron carved his name in Chillon's dungeon pillar; Rousseau set 'La Nouvelle Héloïse' here; Nabokov lived at the Grand Hotel Palace for the last 16 years of his life, writing 'Transparent Things' and 'Look at the Harlequins.' The Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, who negotiated with many artists in person — the Sto…