Grand Chalet, Wooden chalet in Rossinière, Switzerland

The Grand Chalet is a five-storey wooden house with 113 windows and 60 rooms, built between 1752 and 1756 in Rossinière. Its facade shows horizontal bands of tan and brown painted wood, with the dates 1717 and 1754 and floral motifs between them. Below the windows, bands of cursive text carry 2,800 characters composed by first owner Jean-David Henchoz. The roof is steep and shingled, and a low stone wall with an iron gate and two stone sphere finials stands in front.

Built between 1752 and 1756 for Jean-David Henchoz, court clerk of Rossinière, the house was designed around its vaulted cheese cellars, whose volume set the size of the building above. In 1852 it became the Grand Chalet hotel, receiving guests such as Victor Hugo and Léon Gambetta. The painter Balthus bought it in 1977 and lived there until his death in 2001.

The façade carries 2,800 painted characters set by Jean-David Henchoz, mixing his Christian convictions with verses by the 17th-century poet Antoinette Deshoulières. Since 2010 the Balthus Foundation has run the Chapelle Balthus here, a small museum and study centre where catalogues can be consulted and Wim Wenders' film of the painter's studio is shown.

The chalet is a private residence still occupied by Balthus's widow Setsuko Klossowska de Rola and family, so it is not open for tours. The Balthus Chapel, a small museum and resource centre created by the Balthus Foundation in 2010, holds catalogues and films on the painter, including Wim Wenders's film of his studio. Check its opening before travelling to Rossinière.

The facade carries 2,800 painted characters set by Jean-David Henchoz, mixing his Christian convictions with verses by the 17th-century French poet Antoinette Deshoulières. Among them: "How little man knows the death he fears" and "Pride is ridiculous and vain". The north side names Henchoz himself as builder, son of the late Gabriel Henchoz, former curial and governor of Rossinière.