Chateau des Avenieres - 74350 Cruseilles
Tél : + 33 (0) 4 50 44 02 23 - Fax : + 33 (0) 4 50 44 29 09
eMail : reservation@chateau-des-avenieres.com

Home page : http://www.chateau-des-avenieres.com
AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY

Built at the beginning of the 20th century by a wealthy American, furnished by an antique lover of Indian ancestry, the Château des Avenières has always been an object of curiosity.  Now a unique and charming hotel, it welcomes guests looking for peace, tranquility and refined pleasures, as well as those interested in rare emotions and mystery.

Once a series of simple clearings planted in oats, the Avenières made their entry into history on a sunny afternoon in the summer of 1904.  On that day, a melancholic young American by the name of Mary came to the slopes of the Salève mountain with some friends and was suddenly taken by the exceptionally beautiful view.  She decided right then and there to build a sanctuary dedicated to her recently deceased younger sister…

Mary Wallace Schillito was born in 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Her father, a powerful businessman, made his fortune in railroads.  From childhood, Mary greatly admired her sister Violette, a beautiful and delicate young girl.

As teenagers, the two sisters delved into the delights of Paris in its Oriental period.  Occult sciences, Sapphic poetry, culture and music…Mary and Violette led a rich "interior life" until 1901, when Violette died of typhoid fever in Cannes.  Heartbroken, Mary traveled widely in search of peace of mind and a place to celebrate the memory of her beloved sister.

1905: The land is purchased.

1907: Work on the colossal project is begun.  There is barely a path, and no real road.  Heavy stones from Burgundy are brought in one by one.

Mary haunts the Paris antique shops and puts together a fabulous collection of treasures for her castle: altar reredos, 15th and 16th century polychrome sculptures, etc.  She has a strange circle of friends that includes true scholars and nebulous magicians, brilliant archeologists and shady experts.  Among these personalities one begins to stand out: a chubby little man with piercing eyes and Asian features named Assan Faride Dina.
Born of a Hindu father and a French mother, Dina had already lived an adventurous life when he married Mary Wallace Schillito at age 42.

A highly skilled astronomer, taken with Assyriology, an insightful engineer…Dina had traveled the world.  He now put his unbounded creativity to work on the castle.The castle grounds are modeled after gigantic butterfly wings and are decorated with sphinxes, mythological figures, grottos and underground pools with the symbol of Mercury...

But Dina's Great Work was, is, and always will be the Chapel in which he attempted to create an impossible synthesis of universal knowledge including Egyptian tarots, Cabala, signs of the zodiac, etc.

In a vast mosaic with touches of gold, all the gods are called upon and all religions assembled.

Finally, in 1917, with the Western world licking its wounds, Dina signed his work with the terse formula "The Universe is an egg, the egg is a universe."

He died under mysterious circumstances while crossing the Red Sea.

In 1930, Mary Wallace Shillito married pianist Ernest Britt in Paris.  In the five years following their marriage, Britt gradually threw away his wife's fortune.

The Avenières property was sold to Mr Guillermin, a high-ranking elected official of the Savoy region, on  20 January 1936.
Six months later, Mr Guillermin auctioned off the castle's furniture and works of art.

Mary Schillito died of an accident on 22 September 1938, one year after her divorce from Ernest Britt.

Mr Guillermin sold the property to a newly constituted real estate company presided over by Count François Maurice Roussy de Sales.

Then, from 1939 to 1941, a new company took over the Château and operated it as a rest home for wealthy families.

In 1942, the property was rented to the 'Secours Suisse aux enfants victimes de la guerre' (Swiss Red Cross organization for child victims of war).

In 1949, the real estate company rented the domain to the Congregation of the Oratory, who turned it into the first-rate Juilly school.  The Juilly school bought the property and administered it until 1970.

Mr Duvemay, who bought the property in 1970, sold it to Mr Hausermann in 1981.  The latter began restoring the castle but was unable to complete his ambitious and controversial plan to urbanize the site.Now the property of the Domaine des Avenières Real Estate Company, the Château has been operated as a hotel and restaurant since September 1994.