After our days in Lyon, on our way home, we couldn’t resist the temptation and drove to Geneva. Although we had only planned a short stop, the elegance of the city immediately sucked us in. We stopped in a cozy place for a real, strong Swiss coffee, and then made a quick visit to a local jewelry store – because when you’re in Geneva, you can’t miss the small manufactory of one of your wife’s favorite jewelry brands.
During our walk, we also touched on the historic old town, where we saw the Saint-Pierre Cathedral. This is the church that became the center of the Reformation, and within its walls John Calvin preached the word – in fact, according to tradition, it was here, in this place, that he published his doctrines that fundamentally changed the religious map of Europe.
After a two-hour walk in the city, we got back in the car refreshed and headed towards the Mont Blanc Tunnel. We couldn’t wait to pass under the giant rocks of the Alps and arrive in Italy.
Geneva’s history began as a small Celtic settlement and has since become one of the world’s most important diplomatic and humanitarian centres. The city’s strategic location, where Lake Geneva flows into the Rhône River, has been a defining feature since ancient times.
The area was originally inhabited by the Allobroxi, a Celtic tribe, from whom the Romans conquered it in 121 BC. Julius Caesar arrived in 58 BC and was the first to mention the city as “Geneva” in his records, after destroying the bridge over the Rhône River to stop the migration of the Helvetians. Under Roman rule, Geneva developed into an important military and commercial hub, and became a Christian episcopal see as early as the 4th century.
During the Middle Ages, Geneva’s fate was shaped by power struggles between the bishops, the dukes of the House of Savoy and the local bourgeoisie. The 16th century, however, changed everything: Geneva became the “Protestant Rome”. John Calvin arrived in the city in 1536 and introduced radical religious and social reforms. Under his leadership, Geneva became the intellectual center of the Reformation, attracting persecuted Protestants from all over Europe, including many highly skilled French watchmakers and bankers – laying the foundations for Geneva’s famous watchmaking and financial sectors.
The most iconic moment of the city’s independence came on December 11, 1602, on the so-called Escalade night. At night, troops from the House of Savoy attempted to scale the city walls using ladders, but were heroically repelled by the citizens of Geneva. This event remains Geneva’s most important holiday to this day. During the Napoleonic Wars, the city briefly came under French rule, and in 1815, after the Congress of Vienna, it joined the Swiss Confederation as the twenty-second canton.
In the second half of the 19th century, Geneva’s global role reached a new level. In 1863, Henry Dunant founded the International Committee of the Red Cross here, and a year later, the first Geneva Convention for the Protection of the War Wounded was signed here. The city thus became a symbol of neutrality and humanitarianism. After the First World War, in 1919, Geneva was chosen as the seat of the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations), which permanently established the city on the map of international diplomacy.
Today, Geneva is one of the most international cities in the world: it is home to the European headquarters of the UN (Palais des Nations), the headquarters of the WHO, the WTO and many other global organizations, as well as the CERN, a stronghold of particle physics research. The cityscape combines the medieval old town with St. Peter’s Cathedral, the elegant 19th-century lakeside promenades with the monumental Jet d’Eau, and the glass palaces of the modern diplomatic quarter.
