**A legacy from Jean-Baptiste Tavernier: the tower of Aubonne Castle.** e-pics / Swiss National Museum / Photo composition

A travelling baron

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was famous in the 17th century for travelling as far as India. The adventurer and author wanted to retire in Aubonne. But his settled life did not last long.

Christophe Vuilleumier

Christophe Vuilleumier is a historian and board member of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geschichte (Swiss Historical Society). He has published a number of articles on 17th and 20th century Swiss history.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) was a true globetrotter and thus an absolute exception in the 17th century. Although the son of a Dutch cartographer, he grew up in France. Even as a teenager, he was drawn to faraway places. By the age of 25, he could claim to know the whole of Europe and to have mastered most of the continent's languages. In 1631, he turned his attention to the Middle East, initially to Constantinople, before travelling to Armenia and making his way to Isfahan and Baghdad. The traveller's fascination with the "Orient" had only just begun. Over the years, he travelled as far as India and Java and joined the Zurich watchmaker Johann Rudolf Stadler on his way to Persia in 1632. As a jeweller in India, where he lived at the court of the Grand Mogul, he acquired a fabulous diamond of 45.52 carats in Hyderabad in 1668. It is a gemstone that is rumoured to have been stolen from the forehead of a statue of the god Vishnu. The adventurer brought the deep blue diamond and many other precious stones back to Europe and presented them to Louis XIV.

**Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, painted by Nicolas de Largillière, around 1678.** Wikimedia / Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum

The King of France was fascinated by the exotic stones and bought several of them, including the blue diamond. In gratitude, he elevated Tavernier to the nobility. With the new title and enough money in his suitcase, the globetrotter looked for a new home and found it at Aubonne Castle in Vaud. In 1670, he bought the manor and had the old watchtower replaced with a white tower with an onion dome roof. From then on, the new part of the building was a reminder of Tavernier's exotic travels.

**The castle of Aubonne with its characteristic tower. Print from the year 1755.** Wikimedia / Zentralbibliothek Zurich

These journeys made the adventurer famous, as he conscientiously kept a diary on his expeditions and published his experiences under the title "Les Six Voyages de J.B. Tavernier". His keen eye for the customs and traditions of the countries he travelled through turned a normal travelogue into a piece of literature that is still printed and sold today and made Tavernier the "forefather" of modern travel reportage. The canton of Vaud appealed to the baron, but over the years his desire to travel returned. Or was it the dwindling fortune? Tavernier sold the estate in Aubonne in 1685 to Marquis Henri du Quesne (1642-1722), a Protestant naval officer who had fled to Switzerland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. After that, his trail is lost.

**Portrait of Jean Baptiste Tavernier.** Swiss National Museum

Title page of Tavernier's book "Les Six Voyages de J.B. Tavernier". — **Title page of Tavernier's book *"Les Six Voyages de J.B. Tavernier"*.** Wikimedia

Jean Baptiste Tavernier reappeared in 1689. However, the now 84-year-old disappeared again in Russia. How and where exactly is still not entirely clear. The reason for this last journey, which was supposed to take the former Baron of Aubonne to Persia, also remains a mystery. The theory that Tavernier needed money seems to be the most conclusive to this day. However, the fate of the blue diamond is better known. The gemstone had remained in the French royal family and disappeared in the turmoil of the French Revolution in 1789. At the beginning of the 19th century, the stone reappeared in London and was bought by the English banker Thomas Hope. Its new owner gave the showpiece a new name: Hope Diamond. The gem then changed hands several times and is now kept in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Rumour has it that the diamond is cursed because it was "stolen from a god", but that's another story.

Tavernier's blue diamond is still one of the most important gemstones in the world today. — **Tavernier's *blue diamond* is still one of the most important gemstones in the world today.** Wikimedia

As for the castle, it became the seat of the Bernese bailiff in 1701, who governed the newly founded bailiwick of Aubonne from there. When the French occupied the castle in 1798, the rule of the city of Bern came to an end. Aubonne then belonged to the Canton of Léman, an area of the Helvetic Republic, until 1803. With the change of government in 1803, the situation of Aubonne Castle was hotly debated. Due to the advanced state of decay, the cantonal authorities tried to sell the building just one year later. Without success. The attempts to dispose of a property whose restoration costs were particularly high continued until 1835. At that time, the municipality of Aubonne bought the building with the aim of using its cellars to store wine from local productions. Today, the building is listed as a Swiss cultural asset of national importance and houses a secondary school and several public rooms.

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