Brunswick Monument

About this audio guide

This guide to the Brunswick Monument in Geneva centers on Charles the Second, Duke of Brunswick, a man worth millions in gold francs who trusted no one near his food after being driven from his own duchy by a mob in 1830. It follows his exile through Paris and London to Geneva's Beau-Rivage Hotel, where he mixed his own chocolate each morning and made his valet taste it first, trusting diamonds more than people for the rest of his days. He died there in 1873, not yet sixty-nine, still carrying that same wariness with him.