JustJess
The 14th of February – Valentine’s day. The time that lovers and sweethearts spend together in a romantic atmosphere, while making the single part of the population sick to the stomach. I now belong to that second mentioned group, but I can’t say I feel jealous or bitter. Actually, I am enjoying being single and free of any Valentine’s expectations. Especially, from my own. Plus, I have Jo, so there is absolutely no way for me to end up depressed and feeling lonely.
As two single Au-pairs in Switzerland we naturally decided to spend Valentine’s day together. In the best romantic way possible – going out on a trip. Our choice this time fell on the city of Sion. A historical site in canton Valais, only one hour away from Vevey by train.
Sion was on my ‘visit list’ from the very beginning. I’ve seen pictures of the city online and I fell in love within a second. The two main monuments of the city, a fortified cathedral and a castle, are built on two hills opposite each other, creating a really impressive view. At least at pictures on google. I couldn’t wait to see the place with my own eyes, but our trip there was postponed a few times, especially because of our financial situation. A ticket to Sion from Vevey costs 26 Francs and twice the price for the return ticket, making it quite an expensive trip for our Au-pair budgets. But we can pamper ourselves a bit for Valentine’s day, can’t we?
The train journey was as expected – with our faces glued to the window. We’ve never travelled to canton Valais before, so we were quite taken aback by the view. It is completely different from the journey we took a few weeks prior to Gstaad. There the train goes directly through the mountains, taking you through alpine wildrenes. On a way to Sion, the train follows one of the main Swiss rail aeries that was built in lowlands between cantons Vaud and Valais. It leads all the way to Italy. The lowlands around are seeded with many towns and villages, as well as industrial areas and fields. But when I say lowlands, don’t imagine a flat landscape running from horizon to horizon. The valley that follows The river Rhone is surrounded by high mountain peaks from both sides.
Sion is recognizable already a few minutes before the train arrives at the destination. I saw those two hills with two remarkable monuments as the train was approaching the city. This filled me with even greater anticipation. When we finally stepped out of the train the rays of sunshine were peaking at us between the buildings. And even though it was -4°C we didn’t feel cold at all.
We followed the map through the newer part of the city, to get to the historical centre. The walk took us about 10 minutes and we found ourselves on a paved street called ‘Rue du Grand-Pont’. This place is essentially the historical city of Sion and has the breathing atmosphere of a town’s main square – even though it is not marked as one. It is impossible to miss the town’s hall (‘Hotel de ville’) from the mid 17th century. The building was constructed in tuscany-renaissance style and is decorated by a tower with an astrological clock.
Behind almost every other building you find a narrow, middle age-like looking path, heading somewhere up towards two main monuments of the city. I could hear it calling to us to explore every single one of them, but it was not the time yet. First we headed the opposite direction – towards the main churches of the city.
Only three minutes walk from ‘Rue du Grand-Pont’ are situated two tabernacles. Cathedral Notre-Dame de Sion and Church of St-Théodule. The first mentioned building was constructed during the 15th and 16th century on ruins of an older cathedral. However, the bell tower, which seems to be the most significant for the place, is mostly preserved from the 12th century romanesque church. We were hoping to take a look inside, but there was currently a mass taking place and because of covid-19 restrictions the place was only open to a certain number of people. To our disappointment, that number was already reached.
The 16th century Church of St-Théodule, which is situated right next to the cathedral, was closed, so we were condemned to admire its forms only from outside. I made a mental note to come back one day and take a look inside of those two. But Jo will probably not go inside with me – when we passed the cathedral she mentioned that she doesn’t like ‘the smell of the church’. Well… I know what she means, but I kinda like it myself. Now it makes me wonder if someone is able to distinguish different churches by their smell…
From the churches we headed back towards the historical centre, to explore the town’s main monuments. We followed the path around thick stone walls and came to a small square with a castle. I didn’t realise from downtown that this was actually another castle, not one of the two that are sitting on the hills. But from the city centre it was impossible to distinguish between them. Unless you’ve already read something about it.
It turned out that Sion actually has five castles. Ruins of Montorge – northwest of Sion, Tourbillon and Valère – the two monuments sitting on those hills and Majorie and Vidomnant – the the castles we were looking at just now. The castle complex looks like one building from below and unfortunately we couldn’t explore it any further because the site currently belongs to The Art Museum of Canton Valais. And that means that our beloved covid-19 kept it closed for us, as it did with everything else. So there was no other option but to continue up to the hill, towards Castle Tourbillon and Valère cathedral.
Up at the hill we needed to choose which of the historical sites we will visit first, because they are situated on hills opposite each other. We decided on the fortified cathedral Valère, on the right. Although we knew very well we would not be able to take a look inside, at least we could take a look around.
As we climbed the stairs, Jo suddenly flinched because she heard some people speaking Polish. She was reluctant at first, but she ended up talking to them anyway. For her it was the first time after almost 7 months in Switzerland, when she met some people from Poland. Well, no wonder in the covid-19 situation. The tourists were scarce and these people turned out to be Swiss residents somewhere from Fribourg. I was a bit more lucky with people from Czechia – I met Czechs on the fourth day of my stay here. But still, one always cocks up their ears when hearing their mother’s tongue in a foreign country.
On the way up we came across a chapel from the 14th century, ‘The Chapel of all saints’, and we continued to a beautiful view point on the plateau under the cathedral. Looking around, I have the Valère cathedral by my right hand, turning my head slowly, the plateau of canton Valley spreading in front of my eyes, closed by high mountain peaks completely covered in snow. Right in front of me is the city of Sion, with its mediaeval towers. Continuing on the right side, the terraced vineyards at the hills and ending all to my right by castle Tourbillon. Suddenly I thought: ‘I could imagine living here.’ Truly, I wouldn’t mind at all, moving into this city and having it as a base for exploration of all its surroundings. I mentioned before that the beauty of Switzerland should be considered illegal. But Sion gives it another dimension.
The construction of Valère cathedral dates to the early 12th century. Parts of the site were built in romanesque style, but during the 13th century the construction continued in a gothic style. The place didn’t go through many reconstructions in the following centuries, so we have the luck to see it almost in the same forms as our predecessors did a long time ago.
Because of covid-19 restrictions we couldn’t visit, which is a pity, because the basilica holds the oldest functioning organ in the world – from the 15th century. So that’s one more point to the visit list for the next time. At least we looked around and explored the site from all possible angles on the outside.
On the opposite side, castle Tourbillon was waiting for us. We got a little breathless when climbing the hill, which provides a natural line of defence for the castle. However not even the good position could save the castle from conflicts during centuries. The castle was under many attacks and was burned down twice. So even when Tourbillon is a little younger than Valère, what’s left of it is only a ruin. After the last fire in the 17th century, stones from the castle were used for the construction in the region and the castle was left in ruins. It was reinforced and saved in the 19th century to become a national monument.
The higher we got, the better view over Valère cathedral opposite us opened in front of our eyes. The place with all the white mountain peaks around looks almost sacred. We stepped through the mediaeval stone gate guarding the castle Tourbillon and moved forward to the main complex. Unfortunately we got stuck in front of the castle’s walls, because the monument is open from the middle of March to the middle of November. We came slightly out of the season so we found ourselves a nice place to sit and camped outside of the castle walls for about an hour. Many other visitors have done the same, because the afternoon sun was really strong and chased winter temperatures out of our bones.
Later on, when we were coming back, crossing the mediaeval streets of Sion, I had the best idea of falling down on my knees and asking Jo to marry me. She got a fit of laughter and ran away from me. Mainly because she saw some people approaching and they seemed to be very interested in what we were doing. Maybe it looked serious from afar. So I followed her and asked her five more times only to never get the answer. I guess she doesn’t love me enough. 😀 But, I can’t say that my heart would be broken. The very opposite. I spent a wonderful day with a dear friend at a beautiful place. What more can a girl ask on Valentine’s day?
PS: More photos from Sion can be found in the photo gallery.
