Musee de la porcelaine

Permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition occupies four floors in the Château de Nyon and is open throughout the year. The visit begins on the “porcelain floor” which houses several hundred pieces from the Nyon porcelain factory, manufactured between 1781 and 1813. The casual visitor cannot fail to be captivated by the amazing presentation of these collections of old porcelain. The visit continues to the next floor, designed as the piano nobile at the end of the 16th century and then redesigned in the 19th century, where today’s visitors come face to face with former inhabitants of Nyon, photographed by Louis (1832-1900) and Auguste Kunz (1861-1930). These portraits, with their association with ceramics production in Nyon in the 19th century, are displayed over the whole floor, except for the main reception room with its arsenic green walls. Twenty-three steps up, in the former castle prisons, built in the 19th century, the decor changes completely. The cells are preserved as they were with their graffiti, their decals and their grime. In the area formerly occupied by the gaoler’s apartment, next to the cells, thirteen showcases containing objects from different periods recount three thousand years of Nyon’s history, from the Neolithic lake dwellings to our own time. The tour ends under the exposed beams of the roof. In semi-darkness, the visitor can perch on a walkway and admire the work of the craftsmen who laboured to build this impressive wooden structure more than four centuries ago.

Virtual visit of the castle's prisons
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