Venues & stages

Type

Castle, museum and concert venue

Address

Place du Château 1, 1860 Aigle

Once the residence of the knights of Aigle and then of the Bernese governors, the Château d’Aigle raises its towers in the heart of the vineyard, above the old Cloître quarter. Restored from the 1970s, it houses the Museum of Vine, Wine and Labels and four reception rooms, and has become a much-loved concert venue in the region.

The Château d’Aigle, music in the heart of the vines

A fortress amid the vines

Few castles offer such a picture: the towers and wall-walk of the Château d’Aigle rise amid the Chablais vineyards, above the old Cloître quarter, facing the mountains. The image is so striking that it ranks among the most photographed in the canton of Vaud. You walk up in about fifteen minutes from Aigle station, at the mouth of the Rhône valley, halfway between Lake Geneva and the Alps.

Eight centuries of history

The oldest part was built at the end of the 12th century by the family of the knights of Aigle, the Milites de Allio. Damaged by the Bernese during their conquest of the region in 1475, the castle was rebuilt by them as a stronghold and as the prestigious residence of their governors; successive alterations gradually gave it its present shape. After the Vaud Revolution of 1798, it passed to the commune of Aigle and served as a courthouse and prison from 1804 to 1972, and as an almshouse for the poor from 1804 to 1916. Its restoration, from the 1970s, gave it a second life.

A jewel-case for concerts

Music has found a rare setting at the castle. The Amis de la Musique d’Aigle et du Chablais give several of their chamber-music concerts here each season, hailing a “choice jewel-case” for their programmes. In summer, the courtyard and surroundings take on a very different mood with the electronic nights of Move To The Sound, which make the old walls throb late into the night. And wine-and-music gatherings drop in too, such as the Berceuses concert given by Humus & Wine in 2023. From sonata to DJ set, the Château d’Aigle lets centuries and genres converse.

The Museum of Vine, Wine and Labels

Founded by the Confrérie du Guillon to save an endangered Vaud wine-growing heritage, the museum occupies the castle’s halls and towers. There you discover presses, stills, pewter jugs, barrels, corkscrews, tasting cups and glasses, and a database of more than a thousand labels, “the faces of wine”. The exhibitions, interactive and playful, speak as much of landscape, biodiversity and ecology as of art and the art of celebration; people come as families and as knowledgeable enthusiasts. It is one of the essential stops of any wine-tourism stay in the region.

In the land of chasselas

The castle lies at the heart of a thousand-year-old wine-growing tradition in which chasselas, a dry white, takes the lead. This grape reigns over the Rhône valley and the Lake Geneva region, as far as the terraces of Lavaux, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Around Aigle, wine trails, cellars and estates invite you to extend the visit, glass in hand. This is the Chablais, a few minutes from the Bex salt mines and the Bex Music Festival: a region that, in its own way, weds vine, stone and music.