Fénis looks like a castle from a picture book, with double crenellated walls, a ring of towers and a courtyard that seems to belong in a much softer age. It was built mostly between 1320 and 1421 for the Challant family, first by Aimone around 1340 and then by his son Boniface I after 1392, who added the courtyard with its semicircular stone staircase.
It was a lordly home rather than a fortress. Painters of Giacomo Jaquerio’s circle covered the walls with International Gothic frescoes, including a Saint George and the Madonna della Misericordia in the chapel. After decades as a farmhouse, it was bought for the State in 1895 by Alfredo d’Andrade, who restored it.
