The castle and its history
The castle was originally a fortified house, built in the middle of the 12th century by the Cossonay-Prangins family. In 1293 the counts of Savoy took it over and from 1360 on transformed it considerably by adding two towers on the lake side and probably also an inside courtyard. In 1536, as the Reformation took hold, the Bernese chased the House of Savoy out of Nyon. Between 1574 and 1583, the chief magistrates of Berne (“Leurs Excellences”) undertook major construction work, giving the castle the appearance it has today. Following the Vaud revolution of 1798, the town of Nyon purchased the castle from the newly created Canton of Vaud in 1804. It subsequently housed the courts, the meetings of the town council, the prisons and, after 1888, the town museum. With the gradual loss of its defensive features, the castle essentially became an administrative building. In 1947, the houses standing in front of the castle were pulled down and a huge square created, thus completely changing the view of the fortification. The castle was entirely renovated between 1999 and 2006, four centuries after the Bernese construction work.
