Guillaume Tell Chapel, Chapel in Lausanne, Switzerland

The Guillaume Tell Chapel is a small chapel in Lausanne, Switzerland. It has a pyramidal red-brown tiled roof with a finial, pale yellow-beige stone walls, and a front facade with an open round-headed archway leading to a recessed entrance with a dark metal grille, flanked by two projecting pilasters.

The chapel was built thanks to a bequest from the Parisian banker Daniel Iffla, known as Osiris, and was inaugurated in 1917. In the 1950s, the frescoes inside deteriorated, and after years of debate they were moved to the courthouse in the 1960s.

The chapel is named after the Swiss folk hero William Tell, and its decoration once included frescoes by Ernest Biéler that gave the space a nearly religious feel. Today, the original paintings are kept in the nearby courthouse, but the building still recalls the story of Tell and its role in Swiss identity.

The chapel sits in a small garden in the Montbenon area, between the casino and the courthouse, so it is easy to reach on foot from the city center. Visitors can stop by during a walk through the park, but the interior is not always open, so it is best to check locally before planning a visit.

A Canadian admirer of William Tell once asked the city for the key to the chapel and decorated it with a red carpet and the coats of arms of the cantons. He also claimed that Sanskrit words appear on the ceiling and that the name Osiris is carved into the floor.