Napoleon Museum Arenenberg

The Arenenberg in Thurgau is one of the most beautiful places on Lake Constance with its elevated position above Untersee, Arenenberg Castle and the park. The castle is home to the Napoleon Museum. Here you can see the original living quarters of Napoleon III's imperial family.

After the fall of Napoleon l, his stepdaughter, the Dutch Queen Hortense, had to flee France. In 1817, she bought the Arenenberg castle estate and made it her place of exile. She rebuilt and furnished the magnificent salons with style and Parisian flair. She brought her seven-year-old son, Louis Napoléon, with her from France, who grew up here in Thurgau on Lake Constance and lived here until he was thirty-one. He then returned to France by a circuitous route and went down in history as the last French emperor under the name Napoleon III. His wife, Empress Eugénie, extended the palace with additional salons. In 1906, Eugénie donated the estate to the Canton of Thurgau, which established the Napoleon Museum and a school for Thurgau agriculture in the castle estate in accordance with her wishes. Both still exist today.