Rouelbeau Castle

Rouelbeau Castle is a ruined lowland fortress in the municipality of Meinier and the only comprehensively visible remnant of a medieval castle in the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland. It is a heritage site of national significance.

The site has been known under a variety of names, including Bâtie Compey, Bâtie Cholay, Sonneyro or Sonnoyre, and Soubeyron or Souveyron. The latter ones have been traced by some to the term sous-Voirons ("under-will-see"), but other have doubted that logic. The first mention of the name Roillebot - later transcribed as Rouelbeau - has been dated to 1536: The name which has been used in modern times is said to be a combination of the French verb roiller and the noun Bot from the old local dialect. The former can be translated with "to rain heavily" and, more specifically, in the old dialect with "to beat" or "to hit". The latter means "frog". One explanation for the meaning of Rouelbeau is hence that the lords of the castle had difficulties to sleep at nights because of the loud noise from the croaking frogs and therefore had their servants beat on the water with sticks.

The ruins are situated in a marshland close to the sources of the Seymaz river.

The layout shows that Rouelbeau was a rectangular castle, 52 m (171 ft) in length and 39 m (128 ft) in width. Its four corners were formed by circular towers with a diameter of 9 m (30 ft), whose walls were 2.3 m (7.5 ft) thick. At the entrance stood a rectangular tower. It was surrounded by a moat, which is still visible and partly filled with water today.

Scattered archaeological finds in the (former) marshes give evidence that there were already settlements during the Roman times some two millennia ago, despite - or because of - the swampy conditions.

A picture, which the Swiss polymath Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth drew in 1785, says in its caption that the castle was built in the fifth century CE by Gundobad, King of the Burgundians. While there is no evidence for that claim, it may be an indication that the site continued to be settled during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

The same goes for a thesis which was commonly accepted in the 19th century and claimed that Rouelbeau was Quadruvium, the royal residence of Gundobad's son Sigismund of Burgundy. That place was later located in Carouge.

Text adapted from “Rouelbeau Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Rouelbeau Castle ranks #6,231 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #113 of the 201 mapped in Switzerland. Founded c. 1350, it is older than 57% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Geneva, 7 km away. See how Switzerland compares in the castle statistics.

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