The small French town of Ferney, at the gateway to Geneva, has long been known as Ferney-Voltaire. It was here that the philosopher and writer Voltaire (1694-1778) acquired a castle and spent twenty years near the end of his life.

François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was one of the most famous philosophers of the Enlightenment. An anti-cleric, he denounced the religious fanaticism of his time and, politically, he was in favour of a moderate and liberal monarchy.

He therefore had many enemies and, in order to be close to the Geneva publishers and far from the court of Versailles, he acquired the seigneury of Ferney, which was then a village of barely 200 souls.

He thus became the lord of a "no man's land" far from the rigorism of the Genevan Calvinists and the repression of the Parisian royalists.

In 1758 he had his new residence built on the ruins of the old 12th century castle. The new castle, completed in 1762, was enlarged in 1765-1766 to accommodate the crowds of visitors who flocked to talk with Voltaire.

Bought by the French State in 1999, the castle is now managed by the National Monuments Centre, which has made it a place of memory dedicated to the famous philosopher, open to the public.

Useful links

French Region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (iSwitzerland Guide) - Wikipedia