John Bowes and his French wife Joséphine built this chateau in the 1860s as a public museum. It holds paintings by Goya, El Greco and Canaletto, along with French furniture, ceramics and costume. Its most famous object is the Silver Swan, an eighteenth-century musical automaton that preens and catches a fish; it performs once a day, so check the time when you arrive.
The Bowes Museum
French chateau on the edge of a Durham market town, full of European art and a silver swan