The largest historic city in Switzerland, the Old Town of Geneva overlooks Lake Geneva and its 140-meter-high Water Jet, the ultra-chic Rhône street and Croix-d’Or street and its tramways.
The austerity and calm of the Old Town contrasts with the architectural disparity, activity and luxury of the lower streets – which, let’s be honest, are not very charming.
At the heart of Europe and at the crossroads of the major communication routes linking the Mediterranean area to Northern Europe, Geneva has always been the cradle, despite apparent calm, of intense commercial, financial and religious activity.
The fairs held within its walls during the 14th century enjoy a reputation that goes well beyond Swiss borders and this economic growth is accompanied by the development of significant banking activity. In 1387, the bishop of Geneva grants franchises to the municipality and authorizes interest-bearing loans, previously prohibited by the Church.
The wealthy Geneva city is soon targeted by Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy, who plans to make it his capital and who wishes to fight against Protestantism with the support of Pope Clement VIII. The city walls are scaled during the night of December 11 to 12, 1602, but the Genevans repell the attack and win the victory which is celebrated today during the “Escalade Festival”. The Treaty of Saint-Julien marks the end of hostilities in 1603.
Geneva, which benefits from the support of the King of France Henry IV who has just signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, welcomes the reformer John Calvin in 1536, who imposes Calvinism. A moral and religious dictatorship is established and the influence of this new theocracy on the city is immense: ornaments, music, festivals, theater and balls are prohibited. This austerity does not prevent Protestant exiles from France and Italy from joining Geneva, then considered the “Protestant Rome” of Europe.
With the gradual disappearance of fairs in the 16th century, the Geneva city becomes one of the main European financial centers, financing numerous companies around the world, such as the Dutch East India Company and the Royal Bank of England.
Watchmaking develop there in the 18th century and the profits from this new industry are invested in banks which make Geneva one of the leading financial centers on the continent. The Geneva Stock Exchange is created in 1857 and Swiss banks continue to strengthen the financial power of the city ever since.
The Old Town is dominated by Place Bourg-de-Four and Saint-Pierre Cathedral.
The Lutheran community, present in Geneva since 1707, is granted the right to build the city’s first non-Calvinist church on the condition that the building does not resemble a church from the outside. As a consequence, the building does not have a bell tower and resembles a beautiful private mansion located on Place Bourg-de-Four.
The Lutherian church
Place Bourg-de-Four is the oldest square in Geneva. Fairs and markets are already held there in the 11th century and certain buildings are raised in order to deal with the housing crisis linked to the arrival of Protestant exiles from France and Italy in the 17th century. The square now hosts the terraces of several restaurants.
In 1904, a tram runs via Place Bourg-de-Four but the steep slope is the cause of numerous accidents and tram operation ceases after only a few months.
Saint-Pierre Cathedral dominates the Geneva city from the heart of the Old Town.
Built for the Catholic rite and constantly transformed, the cathedral becomes the main Protestant church of Geneva in the middle of the 15th century with the advent of the Reformation. The austerity of Protestantism disrupts the interior of the building, stripping it of all ornament and polychromy. Only the stained glass windows are spared.
Following the incessant modifications, transformations, reconstructions and restorations undergone by the building, Saint-Pierre Cathedral presents today a curious assembly of Romanesque, Gothic and neoclassical styles. Outside, the most glaring changes are the addition of the Maccabees chapel, the construction of the South tower, the reconstruction of the North tower which is hardly identical to the South tower, the installation of a modern spire and the replacement of a ruined Romanesque facade with a neoclassical facade.
The Maccabees Chapel contrasts in a surprising way with the austerity of Saint-Pierre Cathedral.
This jewel of flamboyant Gothic art was formerly a chapel dedicated to the Virgin. It becomes the Chapel of the Maccabees due to the possible presence of relics of the Maccabees brothers. Its construction is completed in 1411.
The Reformation transforms this chapel into a warehouse, but the chapel becomes again a religious building in the 19th century.
The small cobblestone streets of the Old Town perfectly illustrate the sobriety of a city placed under the aegis of Protestantism.
The buildings are often simple and austere.
Contrasting with the patrician and somewhat medieval aspect of the Old Town, the Athénée palace is built in 1863 by the financier and diplomat Jean-Gabriel Eynard and his wife Anna Eynard-Lullin to accommodate the Society of Arts. The Red Cross is founded there the same year.
The Athénée Palace is built next to this patron couple’s own home, the Eynard Palace.
The Eynard Palace is built in 1821 by Jean-Gabriel Eynard, who returns to Geneva after making his fortune in Italy, and his wife Anna Eynard-Lullin, who is a member of one of the oldest patrician families in the Geneva city. In neoclassical style, the building remains the property of the Eynard family until 1891, then is bought by the city of Geneva, which transforms it into a municipal building which houses the municipal archives.
The walker can admire other neoclassical facades within the Old Town.
The International Museum of the Reformation is located in a patrician house built in 1723 by the French banker Gédéon Mallet, descendant of a family of Protestant refugees established in Geneva in the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
The Catholics may have returned to Geneva in 1798 during the French invasion, but the mark left by the Protestants on the patrician and austere Old Town is evident to the walker.
March 15, 2024
