Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) was a true globetrotter and therefore an absolute exception in the 17th century. The son of a cartographer had Dutch roots, but grew up in France. As a teenager he was already drawn to faraway places. At the age of 25, he could claim to know all of Europe and speak most of the continent’s languages. In 1631 he turned his attention to the Middle East, first to Constantinople before traveling to Armenia and heading for Isfahan and Baghdad.
The traveler’s fascination with the “East” was only just emerging. Over the years he traveled as far as India and Java and in 1632 he accompanied the Zurich watchmaker Johann Rudolf Stadler on his way to Persia. As a jeweler in India, where he lived at the court of the Great Mughal, he bought a beautiful diamond weighing 45.52 carats in Hyderabad in 1668. It is a gemstone that legend says was stolen from the forehead of a statue of the god Vishnu. The adventurer brought the deep blue diamond and many other valuable stones to Europe and presented them to Louis XIV.
The King of France was fascinated by the exotic stones and bought a number of them, including the Blue diamond. Out of gratitude he elevated Tavernier to the nobility. With the new title and enough money in his suitcase, the globetrotter looked for a new home and found it in the castle of Aubonne in Vaud. In 1670 he bought the estate and had the old watchtower replaced by a white tower with an onion roof. The new part of the building was now reminiscent of Tavernier’s exotic travels.
These voyages had made the adventurer famous because he kept a conscientious diary during his expeditions and published his experiences under the title «Les Six Voyages by JB Tavernier». His good eye for the mores and customs of the countries he traveled through turned an ordinary travelogue into a piece of literature that is still printed and sold and made Tavernier the “forefather” of modern travel reporting.
The baron loved the canton of Vaud, but over the years his desire to travel returned. Or was it declining fortunes? Tavernier sold the Aubonne estate in 1685 to Marquis Henri du Quesne (1642-1722), a Protestant naval officer who had fled to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. After that his trail is lost.
In 1689 Jean Baptiste Tavernier appeared again. However, the now 84-year-old disappeared again in Russia. How and where exactly is still not entirely clear today. The reason for this last journey, which would take the former Baron von Aubonne to Persia, also remains unclear. The theory that Tavernier needed money seems the most convincing so far.
However, the fate of the Blue diamond. The gemstone remained the property of the French royal family and disappeared during the turmoil of the French Revolution in 1789. At the beginning of the 19th century, the stone reappeared in London and was purchased by the English banker Thomas Hope. The new owner gave the showpiece a new name: Heap of diamonds. The gemstone has since changed hands several times and is now in… National Museum of Natural History kept in Washington. Rumor has it that the diamond is cursed because it was “stolen from a god,” but that’s another story.
As for the castle, in 1701 it became the seat of the Bernese bailiff, who ruled the newly created bailiwick of Aubonne from there. When the French occupied the castle in 1798, the rule of the city of Bern came to an end. Aubonne subsequently belonged to the canton of Léman, an area of the Helvetic Republic, until 1803.
With the change of government in 1803, intense discussion arose about the situation in the Aubonne castle. Due to its advanced state of disrepair, the cantonal authorities attempted to sell the building just a year later. Without success. Attempts to dispose of a property whose restoration costs were particularly high continued until 1835. At that time, the municipality of Aubonne purchased the building with the aim of using the cellars for the storage of wine from local productions. Today the building is registered as a Swiss Cultural Property of National Importance and houses a high school and several public spaces.
Source: Blick
I am Ross William, a passionate and experienced news writer with more than four years of experience in the writing industry. I have been working as an author for 24 Instant News Reporters covering the Trending section. With a keen eye for detail, I am able to find stories that capture people’s interest and help them stay informed.
