Musée-Château d'Annecy

The Musée-Château d'Annecy is a sprawling fortress that looms over the city from its rocky promontory, marked by the massive, thirty-meter-tall Tour de la Reine. This building began in the twelfth century as a residence for the Counts of Geneva and evolved through the sixteenth century, shifting from a defensive stronghold into a princely palace. Its walls incorporate four-meter-thick stone sections from its earliest days alongside the lighter, elegant architectural touches added later by the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours.