Monuments to visit Geneva

It is an unusual building, to say the least, with an original architecture, erected to the glory of the Duke of Brunswick (1804-1873) on the Quai du Mont-Blanc. Charles d'Este-Guelph, Duke of Brunswick, was a singular character. A distinguished linguist, a skilled horseman and a knowledgeable musician, he amassed an immense fortune through excellent investments. Having spent the last three years of his life in Geneva, he instituted the city as his universal legatee on one condition: that it erect a mausoleum for him "in a prominent and dignified position".

When the Sardinian city installs a hydraulic machine and lays its first lead pipes, J. D. Blavignac, imagine some monumental and fanciful fountains dating from the years 1867-1868 and which are now classified as historical monuments. In addition to the architectural work which the artist wanted, they were also used to supply water to the people of Carouge. They are visible at Place du Marché (the most monumental square which is dedicated to the river along Carouge, the Arve), Place du Temple (known for its dragon-like chimeras and its Gothic appearance), Ancienne Street (basin decorated with two bronze swans) and Jacques-Dalphin Street (the least majestic). Blavignac's fountains are signed by his brand, that is, a snail. They are partly carved from local rocks and decorated with bronze sculptures.

It was the center of power five hundred and fifty years ago, and remains so today. The tower was the seat of Geneva's communal power in the Middle Ages, and nowadays it houses the Council of State. When you pass the porch, don't miss the visit of the Baudet Tower, built in 1455. Originally, its function was military, as evidenced by the cannons outside. Indeed, Geneva was under a double threat: the House of Savoy was threatening and saw the city as the "key to Switzerland". In domestic politics, the episcopal see which controlled temporal power was partly in the hands of this same house of Savoy. Republican aspirations or episcopal aristocracy? Geneva was torn between these social struggles. Climb to the top of the tower by the ramp; it was designed to allow two horsemen to climb abreast without stepping on the ground, or citizens subject to gout disease to reach the top floor without getting off their sedan chair. In 1762, the works of Rousseau, Emile and The Social Contract, were burned there. These works were accused of "destroying religion and governments". The burning caused the author to renounce his citizenship of Geneva. Sitting on the bench at the entrance, the judges pronounced their sentences. The Alabama Room was the site of the first diplomatic and arbitration decisions: the resolution of a dispute between the United States and England in 1872. On August 22, 1864, the Geneva Convention was signed, the first step towards the Red Cross

A royal building? Classified as a historical monument by the State Council of the City of Geneva in 2001, the Maison Royale is undoubtedly the most impressive building in the harbor, but has never housed a crowned head! Built between 1907 and 1909 by the architects Henri Garcin and Charles Bizot, it aroused the ire of the people of Geneva who named it "the jewel with a macaque taste" during the 1909 facade competition. It was said that the building "embodied, down to its slightest moulding, an architecture capable of impressing the bourgeois and frightening the Genevois".

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been mandated by the United Nations to find solutions for refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, migrants, stateless persons and other persons of concern, currently more than 36 million people. It is a non-political and humanitarian organization established in 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The Visitors' Centre is located opposite the main UNHCR building.

A place of worship, a refuge, a forge for the artillery, Calvin's auditorium, located behind St. Peter's Cathedral, welcomed, as early as 1555, John Calvin, Theodore de Bèze, John Knox and their successors. They taught the new Protestant religion there, and John Calvin encouraged the celebration of services in the mother tongue of the Protestant refugees. John Knox was the instigator of the printing of the first Bible in English. The auditorium is best known as the "base camp" from which the new religion spread throughout the world.

Today, it remains the head of this stone stone buried during work in the 1968 th century and rediscovered in during the development of the crossroads that bears its name today. This-metre long oval and oval stone was probably already in prehistory and then had to play a role in the Celtic era. Legend wants the devil to turn it on herself at midnight in the Christmas night.

Important monument and symbol of the attachment of the city to the Swiss Confederation 1815. Located at the entrance of the Mont-Blanc bridge, in the English Garden, the two young women in bronze dress, carrying sword and shield, stand proudly on their pedestal looking towards the country. One represents the Republic of Geneva (crenellated headdress), the other, Helvetia (laurel crown). This national monument was inaugurated in 1869. For the anecdote it seems that the sculptor Robert Dorer took for models two Savoyard ladies.

It can be spotted from afar, especially when the sun shines on its nine superb steeples with golden bulbs. This Orthodox church offers an atypical image in the Geneva urban landscape. In 1847, the new Constitution of Geneva advocated freedom of worship and religious tolerance. From then on, the authorities allocated land - corresponding to the line of the old fortifications - to the various religious denominations to build places of worship. A Catholic church, an Anglican church, a Masonic temple, a synagogue... Finally, in 1866, the Russian Orthodox Church was built, with an architecture inspired by Byzantine art and by the Moscow style of the 16th-18th centuries. Thanks to the financial contribution of the Russian diaspora, the community grew with the arrival of members of the imperial family, aristocrats, high-ranking officials, engineers and tourists who came to take the waters in the thermal spas, many students and finally revolutionaries. From 1917, after the Bolshevik revolution, the emigration of Russians to Geneva intensified. The church then represented a very strong link - and the only one - between the new residents and their former mother country. Today, there are 200,000 Orthodox believers in Switzerland and about a thousand in Geneva. This church is reputed to be more independent and more free of expression than the one in Chêne-Bougeries, under the direct authority of the Patriarch of Moscow. A church which deserves a small visit.