Imperial views on the Napoleon route

The splendid view location above the Untersee of Lake Constance makes the Swiss community of Salenstein an attractive residential location. There are five castles here alone. The most famous castle owner was Queen Hortense de Beauharnais, stepdaughter of Napoleon Bonaparte I, Emperor of the French. After his defeat at Waterloo, she fled with her youngest son to the Konstanz castle Seeheim. When the Grand Duke of Baden expelled her from his land, she bought the Arenenberg estate in Swiss Thurgau and commissioned the then most famous landscape architect, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, to design a landscape garden at the foot of the castle. Her son Louis Napoleon, the later Emperor Napoleon III, grew up in the castle. Together with the owner of Wolfsberg Castle, he built an observation tower (Belvédère) in 1829 to give illustrious guests a panoramic view of Lake Constance and the Swiss Alps. Non-noble visitors were allowed to climb the tower for a fee until it became dilapidated in 1855 and was demolished. A citizen of Salenstein had the idea for a new building in 2012, which was inaugurated in spring 2017 and has since become the region's attraction. Unlike its predecessor, not only is the visit free for everyone – there is even free WLAN to study the excellently prepared background information on site! Above all, the panoramic view of the Unter- and Obersee, Hegau and Linzgau, and (in föhn weather) the Alpine peaks is priceless.