| Switzerland | |
| Category: | Country |
| Planet: | Earth |
| Continent: | Europe |
| Locale: | Western Europe |
| Points of interest: | Cologny; Geneva; Lake Geneva; Vasaria; Villa Diodati |
Switzerland is a country in Western Europe. Its capital city is Geneva. Switzerland is famous for its cheese, its bank accounts, its army knives, its hot cocoa, its pudding bars and its insistence that it is a neutral country (though the Swiss are kinda lax in this regard when it comes to pocketing Nazi gold from time to time).
Points of Interest[]
- Cologny
- Cologny is a municipality located in the city of Geneva. The town borders Lake Geneva in the southwestern region of the country. The Villa Diodati manor house, once owned by poet Lord Byron, was located in Cologny.
- Frankenstein Village
- Frankenstein Village is a small town located in Switzerland. It is near the town of Reigelberg and is a three day journey by horse to the village of Vasaria. [1] The village was named after the noble Frankenstein family, who has maintained a strong presence in the region for more than seven-hundred years. Frankenstein Village is the location of Frankenstein Castle, the ancestral home of the family, the earliest known ancestor of which was Baron Frankenstein, who lived at the manor with his son, Heinrich von (Henry) Frankenstein. Near the castle was an old watchtower where Henry Frankenstein conducted a series of bizarre experiments in the late 19th century that ruined the family legacy, making the name Frankenstein synonymous with monsters and horror. The product of Frankenstein's work was a shambling, monster who many claim were responsible for several deaths in the nearby village. The first confirmed sighting of the monster took place following the accidental death of a village girl named Maria. The villagers banded together as a mob and hunted the monster down, allegedly killing him at an old mill near the family estate. The monster survived however, and only a short time later, wandered deep into the forests of the village where he befriended an old, blind man. During this time, the monster learned to speak and began to develop a sense of humanity, but this brief happiness ended when the monster decided to end his own life, as well as that of his monstrous "bride", by destroying the Frankenstein watchtower. Henry Frankenstein and his wife Elizabeth survived these horrors and remained at the castle for some time where they raised a family. When Henry Frankenstein died, his records of his experiments were lost and his body was buried in a secret crypt beneath the ruins of his old laboratory. His monstrous legacy however was still alive. For years, the Frankenstein Monster lived alone in the woods, doing everything he could to survive. Driven mad by his prior experiences, he became a savage killer, raiding homes and murdering at random. One man, Inspector Krogh, once described how the monster burst into his home when he was a young child and ripped his right arm clean out of its socket. The monster disappeared shortly thereafter and was not heard of in the village for many years. The ruling council members of Frankenstein Village may have been free of the monster, but they still had other criminals to contend with. One such criminal was a blacksmith named Ygor, who was sentenced to hang for allegedly robbing graves. Ygor was executed and pronounced dead, but had miraculously survived the hanging. It was decreed that they could not execute him a second time, and they were forced to set Ygor free. Following this event, Ygor began living in the ruins of Frankenstein Castle and became known as a local oddity. A short time later, Wolf von Frankenstein, his American bride Elsa and their son Peter came to live in Frankenstein Village. The villagers had enjoyed many years of peace without anyone invoking the hated family name, and they wished it to remain so. As the Frankenstein family disembarked the train at the station, they were met by the town Burgomaster and the reigning council members who pointedly told them, "We are here to meet you, not to greet you". Wolf tried to appeal to their better nature, telling them that he wished to be their friends and to restore honor to the name of Frankenstein, but the villagers had little interest in anything he had to say. It wasn't long before Wolf discovered the Frankenstein Monster and used him as a template to continue his father's work.
- Geneva
- Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. Geneva is a global city, a financial center, and worldwide center for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many of the agencies of the United Nations[4] and the Red Cross. Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organisations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.
- Goldstadt Medical College
- This was where Doctor Henry Frankenstein studied galvanism under the tutelage of Professor Waldman. Following his work at the college, Henry sent his hunchbacked assistant Fritz to break into the school and steal a human brain from Waldman's lecture hall. Note: Used interchangeably with the University of Ingoldstadt. [2]
- Lake Geneva
- Lake Geneva is a lake in Western Europe that occupies areas in both France and Switzerland. It is 73 kilometers long and 14 kilometers wide at its largest width. It has a surface area of 580.03 square kilometers. The municipality of Cologny in Geneva borders the lake. Cologny is the site of Villa Diodati, which was a manor house owned by Lord Byron in the early 19th century.
- Vasaria
- Vasaria is a small, quaint town nestled in the mountains of Eastern Europe. Its exact location is unknown, but it is positioned somewhere in either Switzerland, Austria or Germany approximately three days journey by carriage from Frankenstein Village. Vasaria was the home of two scientific geniuses who gained notoriety. During the early 1930s, a man named Gustav Niemann was inspired by the works of Henry Frankenstein and expanded on Frankenstein's work by attempting to perfect the world's first human brain transplant. Using the recently deceased for his experiments, Niemann attempted to place a human brain inside the head of a dog. His work was discovered by the local Burgomeister and Niemann was put on trial. His own assistant, Ullman, testified against him, and another man, Herr Strauss, witnessed Niemann confiscating cadavers for his work. Following the trial, Gustav Niemann was given a life sentence at Neustadt Prison. He spent fifteen years there before escaping in 1944. More infamous than Niemann however were the members of the Frankenstein family. Ludwig Frankenstein, the youngest son of Henry Frankenstein, lived at the family castle estate in the hills above the town.
- Villa Diodati
- Villa Diodati is a manor house located in the municipality of Cologny in Geneva, Switzerland, right near Lake Geneva. In the early 19th century, it was the summer residence of the poet, Lord Byron. It has gained some notoriety in film history for in the summer of 1816, Byron, fellow poet Percey Shelley, John Polidori, Mary Godwin and several others spent an evening exchanging tales of horror. This was the night that Mary conceived her most famous creation, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. A fictionalized account of the circumstances surrounding this event were chronicled in the 1986 film Gothic by Ken Russell.
Films that take place in Switzerland[]
- Bride, The (1985)
- Bride of Frankenstein, The [3]
- Curse of Frankenstein, The
- Frankenstein (1994)
- Frankenstein Unbound
- Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1934)
- Gothic (1986)
Characters from Switzerland[]
Note: The following is a list of characters known to reside in Switzerland. It does not necessarily mean that they were born there.
Notes[]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ House of Frankenstein (1944)
- ↑ Frankenstein (1931)
- ↑ Implied as based on the original novel, but never established by name.