[1] Successively occupied by the House of Savoy, then by the Bernese from 1536 until 1798, it now belongs to the canton de Vaud and is classified as a Swiss Cultural Property of National Significance.

[2] According to the Swiss ethnologist Albert Samuel Gatschet, the name Chillon derives from the Waldensian dialect and means "flat stone, slab, platform".

The placement of the castle is strategic: it guards the passage between the Vaud Riviera [fr], which allows access to the north towards Germany and France, and the Rhone valley, a quick route to Italy, and offers a viewpoint over the Savoyard coast on the opposite side of the lake.

[6] A charter of 1150, in which Count Humbert III granted the Cistercians of Hautcrêt free passage to Chillon, shows that the castle was under the authority of the House of Savoy.

In an 1898 lecture to the Zurich Antiquity Society, Johann Rudolf Rahn boasted about it,[15] while the German Emperor, William II, inquired about the Chillon model when planning the reconstruction of the fortress of Haut-Koenigsbourg.

From the end of the 18th century, the castle attracted romantic writers and inspired poets from around the world, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Mary Shelley and Lord Byron.

Visitors can view four great halls, three courtyards, and a series of bedrooms including the Camera domini, which was occupied by the Duke of Savoy and is decorated with 14th century murals.

The one-time prison of François Bonivard assumes a symbolic and premonitory significance for Daisy Miller, who thinks she can escape the shackles of social conventions.

The automaton disappeared for decades and was eventually purchased by the Association of Friends of Chillon, the Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History (MCAH) and the Castle Foundation, for 59,000 Swiss francs, at an auction held in Paris in March 2016.

The castle has twice hosted the Compagnie du Graal theatre company, based in Thonon-les-Bains, in 2009 for a sound and light adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear and again in 2012 for the creation of an epic fresco inspired by the titan of Greek mythology, Hyperion.