Although Switzerland has no royal tradition, royal families have long held a certain fascination for the Swiss; not least because they brought pomp and splendour to the country and celebrated their power there. Many crowned heads of state have visited Switzerland since the 19th century. For example, King Ludwig II of Bavaria was so taken by the William Tell story that he travelled to Lake Lucerne in 1865 and wanted to buy the Rütli meadow so he could build a castle on it. Then there was Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon I and subsequently Emperor of the French, who spent a lot of his childhood at Arenenberg Castle after his family went into exile. Charles-Louis spoke with a proper Thurgau accent and attended military school in Thun. The fate of Sisi, Empress of Austria, is among the best known and most poignant experiences of a royal in Switzerland. She often visited the country for rest and recuperation, and was murdered in Geneva in 1898. All royal visits, whether by an emperor, empress, king, queen, prince or princess, and for whatever reason, whether politics, business or personal, had one thing in common: they triggered – both then and now – immense excitement and fascination among the Swiss public. The exhibition demonstrates this through many pictures and exclusive possessions of these bluebloods.

The exhibition will be on display in an adapted form at the Château de Prangins from 19 March to 10 October 2027.