Tourbillon Castle

The bishops of Sion had been secular lords as well as spiritual since Rudolph III, last king of Upper Burgundy, granted the County of Valais to Bishop Hugo (998–1017).

Tourbillon is most probably part of a wider improvement of Sion's fortifications, begun about 1297 or 1298 under Boniface de Challant, bishop of Sion and a descendant of the Challant viscounts of Aosta. Deeds signed at Tourbillon from May 1307 show the habitable parts were finished when Boniface died on 13 June 1308; his cousin and successor Aymon de Châtillon appears to have completed the work.

Tourbillon was the bishops' main residence until Guichard Tavelli, who preferred Soie Castle; after Tavelli bought Majorie Castle in 1373 it became a temporary residence but kept its military importance. His enemies took it by force several times. Twice the inhabitants of Sion besieged it, the bishop calling on Amadeus VI of Savoy, whose negotiators reached terms with the townspeople. A third conflict broke out in 1352; Pierre de la Tour's men fired a castle at Sierre and were arrested attempting the same at Tourbillon.

In exchange for that help Tavelli offered the count the office of bailiff, and Amadeus VI installed a vice-bailiff in the castle. Though Tourbillon went untouched in the revolts that followed, its defences were improved with new trebuchets, glacis, ditches on the plateau to the east, hoardings on the wall-heads and a store of more than 5,000 crossbow bolts. In March 1361, after nine years as bailiff, Amadeus VI signed the Treaty of Évian and gave up interfering in the bishop's affairs.

In 1375 Tavelli was assassinated by supporters of Antoine de la Tour, and the Valaisans, allied with Peter of Raron, rose repeatedly against his successor Édouard de Savoie-Achaïe. In 1384 they took Tourbillon, Majorie and Soie; Amadeus VII besieged Sion, partly destroyed the town and imposed a peace treaty that returned the castles to the bishop.

Witschard of Raron then succeeded his father Peter as Grand Bailiff while his family held the bishopric — William I in 1392, then his uncle William II in 1402. The population rose on such a scale that William II fled to Soie and Witschard went to Bern for help. Tourbillon and Montorge were taken by force and burnt by the population in 1417, and Soie was besieged and destroyed shortly after. Bernese troops set fire to Sion in 1418; peace was signed in 1420 and the Raron regained all their rights. Tourbillon was left unusable, its interiors and roofs burnt out and its walls cracked in many places.

André dei Benzi de Gualdo, diocesan administrator from 1418 and bishop from 1431, restored peace, and William III of Raron was accepted as bishop by clergy and people in 1437. The castle was wholly rebuilt in the years 1440 to 1450 and thereafter regularly maintained; it withstood several armed conflicts in the 15th and 16th centuries and by the end of the 17th seems still to have served as a watchtower to warn the surrounding castles. Its difficult access sent the bishops to houses elsewhere in the 18th century, and it was emptied and left unguarded.

On 24 May 1788 a fire broke out near the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Sion and spread on a violent wind. Valère was spared, but much of Sion, Majorie and Tourbillon among it, was badly hit. All the woodwork at Tourbillon went — roofs, floors and furniture — and with it the portraits of every bishop of Sion that hung in the keep's chambers. The bishop ordered Majorie rebuilt at once; the conflicts affecting the Valais left the bishopric without the resources to restore Tourbillon.

The materials left at Tourbillon — iron and stone slabs — were reused elsewhere in the 19th century, when Bishop Maurice-Fabien Roten had an episcopal palace built in Sion and abandoned Majorie. With state money the walls were later consolidated and the tower south of the enclosure rebuilt, work completed in 1887.

The canton recognised Tourbillon as a historical monument early in the 20th century, and the Pro Tourbillon association was founded in 1963. Recognised as a monument of national importance in 1970, the castle had its last major consolidation between 1993 and 1999, and in that year the Bishopric of Sion ceded the site to the Tourbillon Castle Foundation, with 400,000 francs set aside by the canton, Sion and its bourgeoisie for upkeep; restoration of the chapel began in 2009. The ruin is a class A Swiss cultural property of national significance, open to the public free of charge from 15 March to 16 November.