Plainpalais

{{Short description|Locality in Geneva, Switzerland}} [[File:Cimetière des Rois, allée centrale, Genève.jpg|thumb|301x301px|Central avenue of the Cimetière de Plainpalais where some Genevan magistrates are buried, as well as many personalities who incidentally contributed to the renown and influence of the city of Geneva.]] '''Plainpalais''' is a neighbourhood in Geneva, Switzerland, and was a municipality of the Canton of Geneva until 1931.<ref name=":0" />

== History == [[File:Escalade-battle-2.jpg|thumb|253x253px|Plainpalais is shown bottom left in this imaginative drawing by Matthias Quad, or the workshop of Franz Hogenberg, around 1603, illustrating the failed surprise attack of 12 December 1602 by the Duke of Savoy to take Geneva. Invaders are pictured crossing the moat in the center left while their reinforcements are entering Plainpalais at the bottom. A column of defenders is in the center, headed toward the Savoyards. Lake Geneva is at center top.|left]]

Formed from the suburban areas of Palais ({{Lang|la|plana palus}}: marshy plain), Saint-Léger and Saint-Victor, between the Rhône and the Arve, the territory of the former municipality covers the current neighbourhoods of Plainpalais, La Jonction, La Cluse, Les Tranchées, Champel and Le Bout-du-Monde, Les Acacias and a strip of land on the left bank of the Arve (Les Vernets).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Plainpalais |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/003312/2018-02-07/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

The Cimetière des Rois was created in 1482 to house victims of the plague. It was then located outside the city walls, around the Plague Hospital. Following the closure of most parish cemeteries after the Protestant Reformation (1536), the Plainpalais Cemetery remained the only one in use for the city of Geneva. It bears witness to Geneva's history and has become its Pantheon. The tomb of John Calvin stands alongside those of Beatriz Consuelo,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Beatriz Consuelo au cimetière de Plainpalais {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/actualites/beatriz-consuelo-cimetiere-plainpalais |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Jorge Luis Borges, Sérgio Viera de Mello, Humphry Davy, Jean Piaget, Alberto Ginastera, Denis de Rougemont, Alice Rivaz, Grisélidis Réal, Jeanne de Salzmann, Frank Martin, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and Genevan political figures such as Léon Nicole, James Fazy or Adrien Lachenal, the first Genevan president of the Swiss Confederation.<ref name=":19">{{Cite web |title=Cimetière des Rois (Plainpalais) {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/cimetiere-rois-plainpalais |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-04-20 |title=Les Genevois de Berne |url=https://www.unige.ch/campus/numeros/117/dossier2/ |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

It was at Plainpalais that the troops of Charles Emmanuel I massed on the night of December 11–12, 1602, during the night of the Escalade.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fatio |first1=Olivier |title=Comprendre l'Escalade: essai de géopolitique genevoise |last2=Nicollier-de Weck |first2=Béatrice |date=2019 |publisher=Labor & fides |isbn=978-2-8309-1065-0 |location=Genève |pages=71, 75}}</ref>

The left bank of the Arve was disputed between the States of Savoy and Geneva until the Treaty of Turin (1754), which awarded it to the city.<ref name=":0" /> Plainpalais became a municipality by the law of February 17, 1800, the date on which the Municipal Council and the office of mayor were established.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commune de Plainpalais |url=https://archives.geneve.ch/archive/eac/commune_de_plainpalaisISAAR |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=archives.geneve.ch|date=November 2005|last=Duc|first=Gérard}}</ref> The Republic of Geneva, annexed by France from April 26, 1798 until December 31, 1813, was then part of the Léman a departement of the French First Republic then First French Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Léman (département) |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/008641/2009-03-18/ |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=L'association – Musée du Vieux Plainpalais |url=https://www.aiplainpalais.ch/?page_id=18 |access-date=2026-02-17 |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

In the 18th century, Plainpalais was primarily a market gardening suburb (cultivating cabbages, artichokes, lettuces, and cardoons) and a place for relaxation, with tree-lined avenues planted around a large diamond shape (the present-day Plainpalais plain). From 1848 onwards, the site became the property of the municipality and was used for both military and civilian celebrations. The site attracted several cultural and entertainment institutions clustered within a small radius (circus in 1865, diorama in 1880, casino in 1887, theaters, etc.) and was lastingly marked by the National Exhibition of 1896. In 1849, when the question of creating a cantonal hospital arose, the deputies chose the former property of Edouard Claparède because of its proximity to the city and its favorable exposure. The establishment of the cantonal hospital (1856), the maternity hospital (1875), the medical school (1876) and the school of chemistry (1878) diversified the activities of the municipality.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Geneve-rue Gourgas-SIP MAMCO.jpg|thumb|Geneva, rue Gourgas, former buildings of SIP; the MAMCO on the right side]]

This area developed under the leadership of Charles Page (mayor from 1882 to 1910): the Sous-Terre bridge (1891) and the Coulouvrenière bridge (1896), the quays along the Arve river (1890-1891), the new town hall (1888), and the community centre (1906), unique in Geneva, were built. Located near Coulouvrenière, the gasworks (1845-1914) and the Power Plant (a building constructed between 1883 and 1892) gave the municipality industrial advantages in the mechanical engineering sector (La Jonction district).<ref name=":0" />

In 1858, Auguste Arthur De la Rive proposed to Marc Thury that he dedicate himself to the manufacture of physics instruments and precision devices. Auguste De la Rive provided the initial capital. Founded in 1862, the {{Lang|fr|Société genevoise d'instruments physiques}} (SIP) manufactured standards and rulers for scientists. These were graduated using a dividing machine invented by Marc Thury. After the 1889 first General Conference on Weights and Measures, when each of the seventeen signatory countries of the Metre Convention received a prototype of the new standard metre, the company specialized in the manufacture of standard rulers or secondary standards, used for everyday measurements in industry. The SIP produced thousands of metal standards from the late 1880s until the early 1970s. The first standard metres were bronze bars in the shape of an "H," with graduations marked on a silver strip, itself set into the bronze within the hollow of the H. Later rulers were made from various iron and nickel alloys more stable than bronze, such as invar and platinite.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fischer |first=Stéphane |date=June 2010 |title=Du pied au mètre du marc au kilo |url=https://institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/mhn/documents/Musee_histoire_des_sciences/aide_pied.pdf |website=Ville de Genève}}</ref> From 1870 onwards, under the leadership of Théodore Turrettini, the company diversified its activities into new energy sectors (hydromotors, refrigeration systems, electricity meters). This expertise led to the development, in 1921, of a machine tool that would contribute to the rise of mass production in the mechanical industry: the pointing machine, known as the "MP," capable of machining with a precision on the order of a thousandth of a millimeter. A true technological feat, this product propelled the firm to the ranks of the world's most prestigious machine manufacturers. In 1990, the SIP left its Plainpalais site for Satigny. In 2006, Starrag Group took over the activities of SIP.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Société genevoise d'instruments de physique (SIP) |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/041920/2010-10-22/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> The Bâtiment d'Art Contemporain (BAC), housed in the former factory, is located at the intersection of Rue de Bains, Rue Gourgas, and Rue des Vieux-Genadiers. Currently undergoing renovation, the BAC will bring together three cultural institutions (the MAMCO, the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, and the Centre de la photographie Genève) to form the largest contemporary art center in Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bâtiment d'art contemporain (BAC): début du chantier le 31 mars 2025 {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/actualites/batiment-art-contemporain-chantier-31-mars-2025 |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bâtiment d'art contemporain |url=https://artasperto.ch/en/collaboration/en-batiment-dart-contemporain/ |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=Arta sperto |language=en-GB}}</ref> left|thumb|Church of the Sacred Heart in Geneva, after renovation. Exterior: terrace of the restaurant "l'Olivier du Sacré-Cœur". Located at the corner of Avenue du Mail, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve and Boulevard Carl-Vogt, the Temple of Plainpalais has played a central role in the Geneva community throughout the centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-08-09 |title=Temple Plainpalais |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81akpfdp98vscrgkvfj4tja |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-25 |title=Événement à Genève: Une immersion éblouissante au Temple de Plainpalais |url=https://www.tdg.ch/geneve-une-immersion-eblouissante-au-temple-de-plainpalais-595890898462 |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> Having previously been based on strict religious unity, Geneva has practiced freedom of worship since 1847.<ref name=":17" /> Following the annexation of Geneva by the French First Republic, Catholics had already obtained the right to settle there and practice their religion. In 1803, they were granted a place of worship, the Church of Saint-Germain in Geneva.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Église catholique romaine de Genève {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/eglise-catholique-romaine-de-geneve |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> In addition, after the departure of Napoleon's troops, Catholic municipalities were ceded by France in the Pays de Gex in 1815 and by Savoy in 1816 to the former Republic of Geneva, which became a confessionally mixed Swiss canton.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Communes réunies |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/030186/2005-08-29/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":17" /> After the project was approved by the Geneva Grand Council in 1849, James Fazy became, from 1850 onwards, the driving force behind the demolition of the old city's fortifications and an urban transformation known as the "Fazy belt." This project allowed the city to expand beyond the boundaries of the former walls, which were then destroyed, leading to new urban development and the construction of neighborhoods, including the boulevard that bears his name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ceinture Fazyste: un projet de publication de l'inventaire des monuments d'art et d'histoire |url=https://www.ge.ch/node/24441 |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=ge.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Several religious buildings were erected in Geneva at the time, including the Basilica of Our Lady of Geneva, the Holy Trinity Church, Geneva,<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Our Church |url=https://www.holytrinitygeneva.org/history-of-our-church |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=holytrinitygeneva |language=en}}</ref> the Beth Yaakov Synagogue, the Russian Church, Geneva and a Masonic Temple, which would become the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pause |first=Guillaume |date=2025-02-24 |title=Remplacer les remparts Genève et la ceinture Fazyste {{!}} Espazium |url=https://www.espazium.ch/fr/actualites/remplacer-les-remparts-ceinture-fazyste |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=www.espazium.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite web |title=03 La liberté de culte: entre Réforme et Kulturkampf |url=https://archives-etat-ge.ch/page_de_base/03-la-liberte-de-culte-entre-reforme-et-kulturkampf/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Les Archives d'Etat de Genève |language=fr-FR}}</ref> In 1939, the World Council of Churches inaugurated its first headquarters in Champel (''41 Chemin des Crêts-de-Champel'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=The World Council of Churches in Geneva: A pilgrimage to places of ecumenical memory {{!}} World Council of Churches |url=https://www.oikoumene.org/news/the-world-council-of-churches-in-geneva-a-pilgrimage-to-places-of-ecumenical-memory |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=www.oikoumene.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Conseil Oecuménique des Eglises - COE {{!}} Genève internationale |url=https://www.geneve-int.ch/fr/whoswho/conseil-oecumenique-des-eglises-coe |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=www.geneve-int.ch}}</ref> In 1937-1938, church leaders representing more than undred churches had agreed to establish a World Council, but its official establishment was deferred with the outbreak of World War II. From its foundation in 1948, the World Council of Churches established its headquarters in Malagnou, Geneva. It moved to Le Grand-Saconnex in 1964.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le Conseil œcuménique des Eglises (COE), c'est quoi? – Portail catholique suisse |url=https://www.cath.ch/newsf/le-conseil-oecumenique-des-eglises-coe-cest-quoi/ |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=cath.ch |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

Following its official recognition in 1852, the Jewish community built a synagogue in the Plainpalais district between 1853 and 1857, replacing the one in Carouge dating from 1787, the Beth Yaakov Synagogue, which was inaugurated in 1859.<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |title=Synagogue |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/1658 |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-05-29 |title=Synagogue, Genève, Suisse, Genève, Suisse, 20e siècle, 1er quart {{!}} Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme |url=https://www.mahj.org/fr/decouvrir-collections-betsalel/synagogue-geneve-suisse-8395 |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.mahj.org |language=fr}}</ref> Banished from Geneva for centuries, Jews have had the right to citizenship since 1857.<ref>{{Cite web |last=olivier.perroux |date=2014-11-04 |title=Une synagogue pour Genève |url=https://www.ge200.ch/carto/une-synagogue-pour-geneve |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=Genève à la carte |language=fr}}</ref> After the refusal to rename the Promenade Charles-Martin in Malagnou,{{efn|Charles Martin (1843-1934) was a Calvinist pastor. He was a member of the International Blue Cross and held a honorary degree from the University of Glasgow. He was president of the Geneva Blue Cross in 1927, when the golden jubilee of the International Blue Cross was celebrated at the ''Plaine de Plainpalais''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Genève, plaine de Plainpalais: jubilé de la Croix-Bleue {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/oeuvre/vg-n18x24-06193-b |access-date=2026-03-18 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Martin {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/charles-martin-0 |access-date=2026-03-18 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> He was the father of Frank Martin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martin, Frank |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/009525/2009-10-27/ |access-date=2026-03-18 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref>}} the Place de la Petite-Fusterie was renamed Place Ruth-Fayon.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Pour une place Ruth Fayon en Ville de Genève |url=https://www.lemanbleu.ch/fr/Actualites/Geneve/Pour-une-place-Ruth-Fayon-en-Ville-de-Geneve.html |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=www.lemanbleu.ch |language=fr-CH}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-05 |title=Féminisation de l'espace public: La place de la Petite-Fusterie sera rebaptisée place Ruth-Fayon |url=https://www.tdg.ch/geneve-la-place-de-la-petite-fusterie-sera-nommes-place-ruth-fayon-460755316811 |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> A survivor of deportation to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen extermination camps, Ruth Fayon shared her testimony with children in Geneva schools for over 30 years until her death in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomenclature: Ruth Fayon honorée |url=https://www.ge.ch/node/38416 |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=ge.ch |date=5 February 2025 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=FAYON |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/3680 |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>

The Roman Catholic parish of the Sacred Heart of Geneva was established in 1873 following the allocation of the Church of Saint-Germain to the Old Catholic Church as a result of the ''Kulturkampf''.<ref name=":15">{{Cite web |title=Paroisse catholique romaine du Sacré-Coeur de Genève {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/paroisse-catholique-romaine-du-sacre-coeur-de-geneve |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Built in 1859 as a single temple uniting seven Masonic lodges, the building was sold around 1870 to Roman Catholics, who have celebrated their services there since October 19, 1873.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81cg6mp6947rm9tpedgqn3q |title=Incendie de l'église du Sacré-Cœur à Genève |language=fr |access-date=2026-03-06 |via=notrehistoire.ch}}</ref> Transformed and enlarged in the 1930s by Adolphe Guyonnet,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corboz |first=André |date=2004 |title=Palmyre à Plainpalais?: Sur les sources formelles de l'église du Sacré-Cœur |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=gen-001:2004:52::102 |journal=Genava: Revue d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie |volume=52 |pages=83 |doi=10.5169/seals-728099 |issn=0072-0585}}</ref> it suffered a major fire on July 19, 2018.<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-06 |title=Le Sacré-Cœur renaît de ses cendres et se métamorphose |url=https://www.tdg.ch/le-sacre-cur-renait-de-ses-cendres-et-se-metamorphose-602298480233 |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> Reopening at Easter 2024, the building has become multifunctional, housing the administration of the Roman Catholic Church of Geneva (ECR, formerly located on Rue des Granges), meeting rooms, and a function room.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-13 |title=L'Église catholique ouvre les portes de son bâtiment historique |url=https://www.tdg.ch/patrimoine-genevois-leglise-catholique-ouvre-son-batiment-historique-457657201350 |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-08-19 |title=Genève {{!}} Sacré-Coeur |url=https://www.schweizerkirchenbautag.unibe.ch/glises_flexibles/fichen/genve_sacr_coeur/index_fra.html |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=La journée suisse du patrimoine religieux}}</ref> The church houses the French-speaking Sacred Heart parish and the Spanish-speaking Catholic parish, which already existed before the fire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Immobilier |first=Journal |date=2024-06-12 |title=Le bâtiment a fêté sa réouverture après deux ans de travaux |url=https://jim.media/articles-jim/culture-histoire-philosophie/le-batiment-a-fete-sa-reouverture-apres-deux-ans-de-travaux/ |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=Le Journal de l'Immobilier |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historia de la PCLE {{!}} PCLE |url=https://pcle.ch/historiapcle/ |access-date=2026-03-06 |language=es}}</ref>

thumb|View of the Russian church at the end of the 19th century, with the Geneva observatory in the background.

On the opposite side of the Old Town, the Promenade Saint-Antoine marked the boundary between Geneva and the new neighbourhood of Les Tranchées, then located in the former municipality of Plainpalais.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Promenade de Saint-Antoine {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/promenade-saint-antoine |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> At the end of the promenade lies Place Franz-Liszt, on the site where the Hungarian composer lived from 1835 to 1836, a period during which he taught at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève at the time of its founding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LISZT |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/2225 |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-02 |title=Sur les traces de Franz Liszt en Suisse {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/article/sur-les-traces-de-franz-liszt-en-suisse-27408407.html |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The first building erected in the Tranchées district was the Russian Church, consecrated in 1866, which was the first Orthodox church built in Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1964-01-20 |title=A l'église russe de Genève {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/archives/1964/video/a-l-eglise-russe-de-geneve-26953997.html |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Sophie, the daughter of Fyodor Dostoevsky, died in Geneva a few weeks after her birth.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2004-08-30 |title=Honnie de Dostoïevski, Genève lui consacre un imposant programme culturel - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/culture/honnie-dostoievski-geneve-lui-consacre-un-imposant-programme-culturel |access-date=2026-03-09 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref> Sophie's funeral took place at the Russian Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=19 Paroissiens et visiteurs illustres de l'église |url=https://archives-etat-ge.ch/page_de_base/19-paroissiens-et-visiteurs-illustres-de-leglise/ |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=Les Archives d'Etat de Genève |language=fr-FR}}</ref> She is buried in the Cimetière des Rois.<ref name=":19" />

left|thumb|General view of the newly built museum, 1911

The former Geneva Observatory was located on the Saint-Antoine bastion, now the Promenade de l’Observatoire, opposite the main entrance of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (1910).<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=Promenade de l'Observatoire {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/promenade-observatoire |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Musée d'art et d'histoire {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/musee-art-histoire |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Built in 1772 at the initiative of Jacques-André Mallet, the Geneva Observatory was the first in Switzerland. In addition to astronomical observations, the institution carried out meteorological surveys and organized chronometer competitions. The building was demolished in 1829 and rebuilt on the same site the following year by Guillaume Henri Dufour.<ref name=":23" /> In 1875, Charles Sanders Peirce conducted experiments there with his reversible pendulum, and commissioned the SIP a vacuum chamber for his pendulum.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Sanders Peirce {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/philosophy-biographies/charles-sanders-peirce#2830903330 |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Peirce |first=Charles S. |date=23 September 1875 |title=Letter from Charles S. Peirce to Carlile P. Patterson. |url=https://www.unav.es/gep/Paris23.09.1875En.html |website=Universidad de Navarra}}</ref> Significant improvements in gravity measuring instruments must also be attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. He devised a gravimeter constructed by Adolf Repsold which was first used in Switzerland by Emile Plantamour,<ref name="Ibáñez-1881" /> Charles Sanders Peirce and Isaac-Charles Élisée Cellérier (1818–1889), a Genevan mathematician soon independently discovered a mathematical formula to correct systematic errors of this device which had been noticed by Plantamour and Adolphe Hirsch.<ref name="Ibáñez-1881">{{citation-attribution|{{Cite book|url=http://www.rac.es/ficheros/Discursos/DR_20080825_173.pdf|title=Discursos leidos ante la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales en la recepcion pública de Don Joaquin Barraquer y Rovira|last=Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero|first=Carlos|publisher=Imprenta de la Viuda e Hijo de D.E. Aguado|year=1881|location=Madrid|pages=70–78}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1880 |title=Rapport de M. Faye sur un Mémoire de M. Peirce concernant la constance de la pesanteur à Paris et les corrections exigées par les anciennes déterminations de Borda et de Biot |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3047v/f1457.image.r=1880%201880 |journal=Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences |volume=90 |pages=1463–1466 |access-date=2018-10-10 |via=Gallica}}</ref> This work led in 1901 to the Earth ellipsoid proposed by Friedrich Robert Helmert, whose parameter values were remarkably close to reality. Helmert determined a value of {{Sfrac|1|298.3}} for the flattening of the Earth to be compared with that of {{Sfrac|1|298.25}} obtained from the analysis of the first satellites measurements.<ref name="Enc. Universalis-1996">{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia Universalis |publisher=Encyclopedia Universalis |year=1996 |isbn=978-2-85229-290-1 |pages=302. Vol 10 |oclc=36747385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Observatoire |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/2697 |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>{{efn|The legal metre is about 0.2 millimetres shorter than it should be according to its original proposed definition. The official length of the Mètre des Archives was based on the Arc measurement of Delambre and Méchain, but the definitive length of the metre required a value for the non-spherical shape of the Earth, known as the flattening of the Earth. Wrong assuption of flattening of the Earth ellipsoid accounted for 3% of the error in the length of the metre and the length of the meridian arc as measured by Delambre and Méchain contributed for less than 2% of the total error, while 95% of the missing length of the legal metre was due to not taking the effect of vertical deflection into account. Despite the precision of their survey, the definition of the metre was beyond Delambre and Méchain's reach as gravity anomalies had not yet been studied.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vaníček |first1=Petr |last2=Foroughi |first2=Ismael |date=2019-09-01 |title=How gravity field shortened our metre |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-019-01257-7 |journal=Journal of Geodesy |language=en |volume=93 |issue=9 |pages=1821–1827 |doi=10.1007/s00190-019-01257-7 |issn=1432-1394}}</ref>}} The building on the former site was destroyed in 1969 after the inauguration of the Geneva Observatory in Sauverny, Versoix.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":23">{{Cite web |title=Observatoire de Genève {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/observatoire-de-geneve |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The role of observatories in assessing the accuracy of mechanical watches was crucial in driving the mechanical watchmaking industry toward ever-higher levels of precision. As a result, high-quality mechanical watch movements today achieve extremely high accuracy. However, no mechanical movement could ultimately match the accuracy of the developing quartz movements. In 1936, thanks to the use of quartz clocks, irregularities in the Earth's rotation speed, caused by the unpredictable movements of air and water masses, were discovered. This implied that astronomical observations were an inaccurate method for determining time. Consequently, observatories ceased certifying chronometers between the late 1960s and early 1970s with the advent of a new definition of the second.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Revivre notre histoire {{!}} Les 350 ans de l'Observatoire de Paris |url=http://350ans.obspm.fr/fr/exposition-virtuelle/revivre-notre-histoire |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=350ans.obspm.fr}}</ref>

Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, the first Genevan member of the Federal Council, was the driving force behind the creation of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in Bern.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |title=Challet-Venel, Jean-Jacques |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/003903/2005-07-14/ |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/jean-jacques-challet-venel |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> He had been the director of the Venel boarding school in Champel,<ref name=":18" /> which hosted King Peter I of Serbia<ref>{{Cite journal |date=24 June 1903 |title=Deux anecdotes genevoises sur le roi Pierre |url=https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch/?a=d&d=TDG19530704-01.2.24.6.1 |journal=La tribune de Genève |issue=154, 4 juillet 1953 |pages=13}}</ref>, Charles Félix Jean-Baptiste Camerata-Passionei di Mazzoleni and Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte.<ref>{{Cite web |title=VENEL |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/1776 |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":26">{{Cite web |title=Journal de Genève - 27.12.1923 - Pages 2/3 |url=https://www.letempsarchives.ch/page/JDG_1923_12_27/2/article/5919817/%22henri%20venel%22 |access-date=2026-04-19 |website=www.letempsarchives.ch}}</ref> Hortense de Beauharnais and the future Emperor Napoléon III visited the school during their 1835 stay in Geneva.<ref name=":26" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-10 |title=En 1838, on frôle la guerre à cause d'un prince suisse |url=https://www.tdg.ch/en-1838-on-frole-la-guerre-a-cause-dun-prince-suisse-658428705292 |access-date=2026-04-19 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>[[File:(05) Voiture 34.gif|thumb|Car number 34 of the Geneva Tramways Company connecting Carouge to Plainpalais.|206x206px]] A horse-drawn tram line was inaugurated on June 19, 1862, between Place Neuve and Rondeau de Carouge. One hundred years later, Geneva's tram line 12 was the last one still operating there.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1962-06-18 |title=100 ans, ça se fête! {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/archives/1962/video/100-ans-ca-se-fete-26180689.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> In the 20th century, Geneva's tram network nearly disappeared. Only line 12 survived. It is the oldest tram line in Europe still in operation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-28 |title=Comment le réseau de tramways genevois a bien failli disparaître? |url=https://www.tdg.ch/histoires-locales-agonie-et-renaissance-du-tram-12-a-geneve-979405139025 |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1985-11-19 |title=Le tram 12 {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/archives/1985/video/le-tram-12-26958388.html |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Redesigned in 1979-1980, the Plainpalais roundabout is an important intersection in the city of Geneva. The commercial activity of the adjacent district, the presence of university buildings, as well as events on the nearby Plainpalais Plain, make it a constantly lively place and an important station for Geneva's public transport network.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Réaménagement du Rond-Point de Plainpalais – AS-045 – Editions – Architecture Suisse |url=https://architecturesuisse.ch/fr/as/045/reamenagement-du-rond-point-de-plainpalais/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=architecturesuisse.ch}}</ref>

The Boulevard des Philosophes connects the Plainpalais roundabout to the Place Édouard-Claparède named after René-Édouard Claparède, the oncle of Édouard Claparède.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Philosophes |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/1277 |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CLAPARÈDE |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/417 |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> The boulevard takes its name from a hamlet that was inhabited by philosophy students from the Academy of Geneva.<ref name=":13" />

thumb|206x206px|Plainpalais community centre (now the Pitoëff Theatre) rue de Carouge|left

The Comédie de Genève was inaugurated on January 24, 1913, at number 6 Boulevard des Philosophes. The oldest Geneva institution dedicated to dramatic arts, it began as a theatre company performing in the Plainpalais community centre (now the Salle Pitoëff) rue de Carouge 52.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Théâtre Pitoëff {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/theatre-pitoeff |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":12" /> A new theatre was inaugurated on Boulevard des Philosophes, in the territory of the former municipality of Plainpalais,<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=La Comédie de Genève |url=https://archives.geneve.ch/archive/eac/la_comedie_de_geneveISAAR |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=archives.geneve.ch}}</ref> during the term of Jacques Louis Willemin, who was the son-in-law of Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero, 1st Marquis of Mulhacén.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Willemin, Jacques Louis |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/003902/2017-05-01/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":24">{{Cite web |title=Comédie |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/2569 |access-date=2026-03-24 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>

In 1936, Albert Dupont-Willemin, the son-in-law of Jacques Louis Willemin, created in Geneva with Jeanne Hersch and André Oltramare the Association of Friends of Republican Spain, a pacifist and anti-fascist mutual aid association.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal |last=Dongen |first=Luc van |date=1997 |title=Solidarité ouvrière et antifascisme: les amis de l'Espagne républicaine à La Chaux-de-Fonds (1936-1939) |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=cmo-001:1997:13::33 |journal=Cahiers d'histoire du mouvement ouvrier |volume=13 |pages=25 |doi=10.5169/seals-540746 |issn=1424-0475}}</ref><ref name=":27">{{Cite journal |last=Jeanneret |first=Pierre |date=1988 |title=Le Parti socialiste suisse et la guerre d'Espagne |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=szg-006:1988:38::296 |journal=Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte = Revue suisse d'histoire = Rivista storica svizzera |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=267 |doi=10.5169/seals-81001 |issn=0036-7834}}</ref> Elena Dupont-Willemin, his wife and the Marquis' granddaughter, accompanied Sofía Blasco on her fundraising tour for the Second Spanish Republic. She was an active member of the Geneva and Swiss feminist movement and campaigned for women's suffrage.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=18 July 1962 |title=LE COIN DE LA SYMPATHIE |url=https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch/?a=d&d=LSE19620718-01.2.68&e=-------fr-20--1--img-txIN--------0-----# |journal=La Sentinelle |volume=75 |issue=163 |pages=8 |via=e-newspaperarchives.ch}}</ref> Eurydice Vernay is the granddaughter of Albert and Elena Dupont-Willemin.<ref>{{cite web |title=Base de données des élites suisses {{!}} Dupont-Willemin, Albert-Louis (1934 - 2021) |url=https://elitessuisses.unil.ch/p/54305?v=2025-03-31 |access-date=2026-04-04}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin |url=https://www.hommages.ch/fr/avis-de-deces/albert-louis-dupont-willemin |access-date=2026-04-04 |language=fr}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>[[File:Façade de la Comédie de Genève.jpg|thumb|Former site of the Comédie de Genève, Boulevard des Philosophes]]

In 1979, the theatre experienced a serious financial crisis. The creation of the Dramatic Arts Foundation (FAD) enabled the Comédie de Genève to recover. During the years 1982-1989, with the production of ''The Green Bird'', based on the work of Carlo Gozzi, the Comédie de Genève, directed by Benno Besson, gained a significant audience. The show was revived for several seasons in Europe and Canada. However, the venue had become outdated and its size unsuitable for an institution of European stature. Faced with uncertainty regarding the theatre's future, including the possibility of relocating to the former Power Plant Building (Bâtiment des Forces motrices),<ref>{{Cite news |date=1998-05-19 |title=Genève aura-t-elle aussi son théâtre au bord de l'eau? - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/culture/geneve-auratelle-theatre-bord-leau |access-date=2026-02-20 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref> the FAD (the Comédie's governing body) entrusted its direction to Anne Bisang, the first woman to hold this position.<ref name=":12" /> Since July 1, 2017, Natacha Koutchoumov and Denis Maillefer, co-directors of the Comédie, have been in charge of ensuring the relocation of the institution to the site of the Eaux-Vives station, one of the key stations on the link between the Cornavin station and the Annemasse station.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-09-21 |title=La nouvelle Comédie, un grand roman genevois - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/culture/scenes/nouvelle-comedie-un-grand-roman-genevois |access-date=2026-02-20 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-09-21 |title=Une gare providence - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/editoriaux/une-gare-providence |access-date=2026-02-20 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref> The programming will be taken over from 2024 up to 2027 by Séverine Chavrier from Annemasse.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-12 |title=Une Annemassienne reprend les rênes de la Comédie |url=https://www.tdg.ch/une-annemassienne-reprend-les-renes-de-la-comedie-880666141751 |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-12-19 |title=Séverine Chavrier ne sera pas reconduite à la tête de la Comédie de Genève {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/geneve/2025/article/la-directrice-de-la-comedie-de-geneve-evincee-apres-des-tensions-internes-29096282.html |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

The former site boulevard des Philosophes will become a Puppet Theatre according to a decision of the City's Administrative Council on June 27, 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-06-27 |title=L'ancienne Comédie de Genève accueillera la Maison de la marionnette - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/culture/scenes/l-ancienne-comedie-de-geneve-accueillera-la-maison-de-la-marionnette |access-date=2026-02-25 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref><ref name=":14">{{Cite web |date=2024-06-27 |title=L'ancienne Comédie deviendra Maison de la marionnette |url=https://www.tdg.ch/geneve-lancienne-comedie-deviendra-maison-de-la-marionnette-720015280309 |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> Once the necessary work will be carried out, the building will house the {{Lang|fr|Théâtre des Marionnettes de Genève}} (Puppet Theatre of Geneva) and a puppet museum.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-07-04 |title=Théâtre des marionnettes de Genève |url=https://wepa.unima.org/en/theatre-des-marionnettes-de-geneve/ |access-date=2026-02-26 |website=World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Théâtre des Marionnettes de Genève {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/theatre-des-marionnettes-de-geneve |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> thumb|University of Geneva – {{Lang|fr|Les Philosophes}}|352x352px|left The writer Georges Haldas lived opposite the former Comédie theater at number 7 Boulevard des Philosophes, where a commemorative plaque has been installed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Georges Haldas à l'honneur {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/actualites/georges-haldas-honneur |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> He also gave his name to a garden located in front of {{Lang|fr|Les Philosophes}} (the Philosophers' building).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inauguration du Jardin Georges-Haldas {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/actualites/inauguration-jardin-georges-haldas |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Located at number 22 Boulevard des Philosophes,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-10 |title=Les Philosophes - Bâtiments: plans d'accès - UNIGE |url=https://www.unige.ch/presse/plans/philosophes |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref> the former School of Chemistry, inaugurated in 1879 and restored between 2008 and 2014, houses the Department of Mediterranean, Slavic and Oriental Languages, Literature and Civilizations, the Department of East Asian Studies and part of the University of Geneva Library's collections.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-29 |title=École de chimie - Archives administratives et patrimoniales (AAP) - UNIGE |url=https://www.unige.ch/archives/aap/historique/batiments/ecole-de-chimie |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Inauguration du bâtiment des Philosophes |url=https://www.ge.ch/node/7374 |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=ge.ch |date=8 December 2014 |language=fr}}</ref> The large amphitheater in the Philosophers' building was renamed Jeanne Hersch Auditorium on the centenary of the birth of the philosopher, who devoted herself to the "philosophy of freedom" in the wake of Karl Jaspers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014 |title=Le nouveau visage des Philosophes |url=https://www.unige.ch/batiment/application/files/6914/3386/5340/fascicule_Philosophes.pdf |pages=7}}</ref>

Jeanne Hersch, who was Hannah Arendt's classmate for a few months in Freiburg im Breisgau, witnessed the implementation of the first anti-Jewish measures in German universities.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-04-20 |title=Tête chercheuse - Campus - le magazine scientifique de l'UNIGE - UNIGE |url=https://www.unige.ch/campus/numeros/99/tetechercheuse/ |access-date=2026-03-01 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref> After fleeing Nazi- Germany in the autumn of 1933, Hannah Arendt worked for a short time at the League of Nations in Geneva. She helped issue entry visas for Jewish settlers and wrote speeches for the Jewish Agency for Palestine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heller |first=Anne C. |title=Hannah Arendt. A Life in Dark Times |publisher=New Harvest |year=2015 |location=Cambridge |pages=64–65}}</ref>

In August 1936, the World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva as a political platform to show solidarity with the persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany, to combat anti-Semitism in Europe and the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union and to promote the political necessity of a Jewish social and migration policy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026 |title=About WJC |url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about |website=World Jewish Congress}}</ref>

Jeanne Hersch, just like Lina Stern, also gave her name to one of the many existing nursery schools in the Plainpalais Jonction district.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liste des crèches et espaces de vie enfantine {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/themes/structures-accueil-enfance-activites-extrascolaires/creches-autres-structures-accueil/creches-espaces-vie-enfantine/liste-creches-espaces-vie-enfantine |access-date=2026-03-01 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-30 |title=Sans attendre Noël, Genève ouvre une crèche et lui donne le nom de Lina Stern |url=https://www.tdg.ch/sans-attendre-noel-geneve-ouvre-une-creche-et-lui-donne-le-nom-de-lina-stern-154282180980 |access-date=2026-03-01 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>

Elected to the Federal Council on March 10, 1993, Ruth Dreifuss, after settling in the canton of Geneva, became the first female president of the Confederation in 1999. Her paternal family, of Jewish origin, had been established in Endingen since the 17th century. Her father, Sidney Dreifuss, collaborated with Paul Grüninger in the clandestine sheltering of Jewish refugees from 1938 to 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dreifuss, Ruth |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/028730/2022-11-23/ |access-date=2026-03-02 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref> As the events in Gaza triggered a surge in antisemitism in French-speaking Switzerland,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-28 |title=Forte hausse des actes antisémites en Suisse romande {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/2025/article/antisemitisme-en-suisse-romande-hausse-de-90-en-2024-28836685.html |access-date=2026-03-03 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Ruth Dreifuss called on the Federal Council to admit wounded Palestinians to Swiss hospitals.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-27 |title=Ruth Dreifuss appelle à accueillir des blessés palestiniens en Suisse {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/2025/article/ruth-dreifuss-demande-l-accueil-de-blesses-palestiniens-en-suisse-28953968.html |access-date=2026-03-03 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Ruth Dreifuss views antisemitism as a persistent phenomenon, comparing its resurgence to a "herpes" that reappears in severe forms. She links the current rise in antisemitism to the Gaza war, while also noting a return of the stereotype of Jews as an evil community.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-03-09 |title=Conférence à Genève: un débat sur l'antisémitisme échauffe les esprits |url=https://www.tdg.ch/antisemitisme-un-debat-houleux-a-geneve-avec-ruth-dreifuss-518540431613 |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> Switzerland launched a national strategy against racism and antisemitism for the years 2026 to 2031.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-12-08 |title=Première stratégie nationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/2025/article/la-suisse-lance-sa-premiere-strategie-nationale-contre-le-racisme-29084103.html |access-date=2026-03-03 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref>thumb|Uni Carl Vogt Building of the University of Geneva

Located at 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-10 |title=66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt - Bâtiments: plans d'accès - UNIGE |url=https://www.unige.ch/presse/plans/uni-carl-vogt |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref> the Uni Carl Vogt building will change its name following a decision by the Rectorate of the University of Geneva. The decision is motivated by the racist and misogynistic theories of the german born naturalist.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-29 |title=L'Université de Genève va renommer le bâtiment Carl Vogt {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/geneve/13426388-luniversite-de-geneve-va-renommer-le-batiment-carl-vogt.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Germany's influence in Romandy during the 19th century was marked by scientific figures now criticized, such as Carl Vogt,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-03-01 |title=La ville de Genève questionne ses symboles et monuments publics liés au racisme {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/geneve/12905068-la-ville-de-geneve-questionne-ses-symboles-et-monuments-publics-lies-au-racisme.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> first Rector of the University of Geneva, who was an assistant of Louis Agassiz at the Neuchâtel Academy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-11 |title=Carl Vogt - Histoire d'un nom - Université de Genève |url=https://www.unige.ch/universite/figurations-historiques/carl-vogt/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Although Carl Vogt supported the hierarchy of races,<ref>{{Cite web |title=VOGT |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/1870 |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> he is also credited with the law that allowed women to enter university.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-09-30 |title=Université de Genève: Carl Vogt victime de la «cancel culture»? - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/geneve/universite-geneve-carl-vogt-victime-cancel-culture |access-date=2026-03-13 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref> Born in Le Petit-Saconnex, then another municipality of Canton of Geneva,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Petit-Saconnex, Le |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/003311/2018-02-07/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Marguerite Champendal was the first Genevan woman to obtain a doctorate in medicine at the University of Geneva in 1900.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Champendal, Marguerite |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/014711/2005-01-04/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> The sociological concept of intersectionality describes how belonging to multiple groups experiencing discrimination contributes to a unique experience for those affected, an experience that is, for example, the result of the interplay of racism and sexism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=L'intersectionnalité, ça veut dire quoi ? {{!}} Tilt |url=https://www.tilt.fr/articles/lintersectionnalite-ca-veut-dire-quoi |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=www.tilt.fr |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Intersectional feminism: What it means and why it matters right now {{!}} UN Women – Headquarters |url=https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters-right-now |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260216073750/https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters-right-now |archive-date=2026-02-16 |access-date=2026-03-15 |work=UN Women – Headquarters |language=en}}</ref> The case of Alice Mathieu-Dubois, the first black doctor in France, illustrated the intersectionality between misogyny and racism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title="Les étudiants l'appelaient Bamboula" : première médecin noire de France, le destin singulier d'Alice Mathieu-Dubois, entre misogynie et racisme |url=https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/oise/compiegne/les-etudiants-l-appelaient-bamboula-premiere-medecin-noire-de-france-le-destin-singulier-d-alice-mathieu-dubois-entre-misogynie-et-racisme-3153515.html |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=France 3 Hauts-de-France |language=fr-FR}}</ref> Long dominated by men, the medical profession has become increasingly feminized since the last quarter of the 20th century, and nearly two-thirds of doctors will be women by 2050.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Féminisation de la médecine : des bénéfices pour toute la profession |url=https://savoirs.unistra.fr/societe/feminisation-de-la-medecine-des-benefices-pour-toute-la-profession |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=savoirs.unistra.fr |language=fr}}</ref> In 2020, a controversy arose in France regarding the existence of racialized medicine. However, the lack of ethnic statistics in France, as in Switzerland, made it difficult to identify racial discrimination.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nau |first=Jean-Yves |date=2020-09-16 |title=Polémique émergente sur l'existence d'une médecine « racisée » |url=https://www.revmed.ch/revue-medicale-suisse/2020/revue-medicale-suisse-706/polemique-emergente-sur-l-existence-d-une-medecine-racisee |journal=Rev Med Suisse |language=fr-CH |volume=706 |pages=1722–1723}}</ref> At the end of 2025, Dr. Mohammed Abbas founded in Geneva Onesimus, the Swiss Network of Afro-descendant Doctors, which offers a space for mentoring and mutual support as a community of solidarity and excellence, rather than focusing on reporting blameworthy behaviour.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gallienne |first=Anne |date=2026-02-11 |title=L'association qui brise le silence des médecins afro-descendants |url=https://www.radiolac.ch/sante/lassociation-qui-brise-le-silence-des-medecins-afro-descendants/ |access-date=2026-03-14 |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Mohamed Abbas - Service prévention et contrôle de l'infection à Genève aux HUG - HUG |url=https://www.hug.ch/service-prevention-controle-infection/dr-mohamed-abbas |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.hug.ch |language=fr}}</ref> In 2026, the HUG (Geneva University Hospitals) strengthened their system for combating racism and discrimination.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quand le racisme met à mal la santé de ses victimes {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/actualites/racisme-sante-victimes |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-02-18 |title=Les HUG renforcent leur dispositif de lutte contre le racisme et la discrimination - HUG |url=https://www.hug.ch/node/48924/edit |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=www.hug.ch |language=fr}}</ref> This is an especially important issue given that in Switzerland three-quarters of new doctors obtained their degree abroad.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-30 |title=La relève médicale en Suisse est majoritairement formée à l'étranger depuis dix ans {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/13743359-la-releve-medicale-en-suisse-est-majoritairement-formee-a-letranger-depuis-dix-ans.html |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rédaction |date=2025-02-25 |title=Réagir à une remarque raciste |url=https://www.santementale.fr/2025/02/reagir-a-une-remarque-raciste/ |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=Santé Mentale |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

thumb|345x345px|University of Geneva (Uni Bastions)|left

In 1559, the Academy of Geneva was created at the initiative of John Calvin as a theological and humanist seminary.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-01-19 |title=Historique - Université de Genève |url=https://www.unige.ch/universite/historique/ |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Theodore Beza was its first rector. In 1864, Carl Vogt presented a university project which was realized in 1873 with the creation of the faculty of medicine and the construction of the three university buildings of the Bastions between 1868 and 1872.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-03-24 |title=Survol historique |url=https://www.unige.ch/450/historique.html |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=www.unige.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historique d'Uni-Bastions et du bâtiment des Philosophes |url=https://www.unibastions.ch/historique.html |access-date=2026-03-04 |website=www.unibastions.ch}}</ref> The first botanical garden of the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva (''Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève'') was inaugurated on November 19, 1817, in what is now the Parc des Bastions, at the initiative of Augustin Pyrame de Candolle, who would serve as its director until his death in 1841. In 1816, he accepted the chair of professor of natural history in Geneva, stipulating as a condition the creation of a botanical garden to support his university teaching. The garden was established thanks to a public subscription that garnered 284 donations.<ref>Matylda Levet, « », ''La Feuille verte'', janvier 2017, <abbr>p.</abbr> 5-9.</ref> The Botanical Gardens were transferred to the Console site (192 rue de Lausanne) in 1904. In its present location, it occupies an area of 28 hectares (69 acres) adjacent to Lake Geneva and the park of the United Nations Office at Geneva and ranks as one of the five most important in the world. The greenhouses at Bastions were removed to make way for the Wall of the Reformers.

[[File:Pont-Hans-Wilsdorf.JPG|thumb|The Hans Wilsdorf Bridge, the former medical school and Radio Télévision Suisse tower in the Plainpalais district of Geneva.]]

The former medical school was built in 1876 at the corner of the Rue de l'Ecole-de-médecine, to which it gave its name,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ecole-de-Médecine |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/612 |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> and the Quai Ernest-Ansermet,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Herbert |first=Frank |date=2016-01-05 |title=Ancienne Ecole de Médecine {{!}} architech sa |url=https://www.architech.ch/projets/ecole-medecine-geneve/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=www.architech.ch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-09-27 |title=L'ancienne école de médecine |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81b58x5r10gf7p0m9vvsbcb |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> where the Radio Télévision Suisse tower, built in 1968-1970, is also located in its immediate vicinity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-24 |title=La tour de la Radio Télévision Suisse {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/archives/grands-formats/2025/article/la-tour-de-la-rts-a-geneve-histoire-et-evolution-d-un-symbole-televisuel-28662937.html |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The Hans Wilsdorf bridge connects the Rue de l’Ecole-de-Médecine to Les Vernets where Rolex headquarters are located.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2004-03-27 |title=Rolex tourne une page d'histoire centenaire - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/economie/rolex-tourne-une-page-dhistoire-centenaire |access-date=2026-03-13 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-16 |title=La nuit, le pont Hans Wilsdorf se transforme en pont Rolex |url=https://www.tdg.ch/la-nuit-le-pont-hans-wilsdorf-se-transforme-en-pont-rolex-141530463004 |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>

From 1875 to 1876, a building was constructed in Plainpalais to house a barracks, an arsenal, and a riding school with stables.<ref name=":20" /> The building was subsequently replaced by the former exhibition hall, then by Uni Mail.<ref name=":21" /> The presence of the Exhibition Palace in Plainpalais, between 1926 and 1980, reinforced the dynamism of the district.<ref name=":0" /> Upon its demolition, the site was occupied by one of the main buildings of the University of Geneva.<ref name=":21">{{Cite web |date=2015-03-04 |title=Genève, l'ancienne caserne |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81bhqxge5c5g2fqs819kydq |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":20">{{Cite web |title=Je cherche des informations sur l'ancienne caserne de Plainpalais dont la rénovation devrait permettre d'accueillir les archives de l'Etat de Genève. Savez-vous quand ce bâtiment entrera en fonction ? {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/themes/culture/bibliotheques/interroge/reponses/je-cherche-des-informations-sur-ancienne-caserne-de-plainpalais-dont-la-renovation-permettre-accueillir-les-archives-de-de-geneve-savez-ce-batiment-entrera-en-fonction |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

thumb|Uni Mail entrance at the site of the former Exhibition Hall, from where the Swiss Army opened fire on the crowd.|left

In 1932, the Social Democratic Party's section of Geneva protested against the National Union's plan to hold a political meeting aimed at disqualifying socialist leaders Léon Nicole and Jacques Dicker at the Plainpalais community centre. The Geneva Socialist Party called for an anti-fascist demonstration. Fearing a riot, the Council of State of Geneva requested the support of the Swiss Confederation. On November 9, 1932, at 9:34&nbsp;p.m., three sections of a conscripts' company, called in to reinforce the Geneva police, feeling cornered in front of the former Exhibition Hall (Uni Mail), opened fire on the crowd, killing 13 and wounding 65.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Genève, fusillade de |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/017337/2007-07-11/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite web |date=2016-03-01 |title=Genève, 9 novembre 1932: la fusillade de Plainpalais |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81a1w35wqm4t2kcwsee6drx |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The November 1932 Geneva shooting, resonated worldwide due to the presence of the League of Nations.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-03-01 |title=Les lendemains de la fusillade du 9 novembre 1932 |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81a21knz1p14dbq1wn38pnx |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

The international context was threatening with the rise of fascism in Europe. In 1922, Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy, followed by Engelbert Dollfuss in Austria in 1932. Meanwhile, the elections of July 31, 1932, foreshadowed Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933.<ref name=":10" /> The National Union of Geneva, whose sole leader was Georges Oltramare from 1935 onwards, was the Swiss movement that came closest to the Italian fascist model.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Faschismus |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/017454/2011-09-22/ |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> A prominent figure in the Italian Socialist Party at its Zurich conference in 1913, Benito Mussolini was expelled from the party in November 1914 due to his opposition to Italian neutrality. At the end of World War I, he founded the fascist movement. Under fascist regime, Mussolini persecuted his former socialist comrades, some of whom chose exile in Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Merz |first=Noëmi Crain |date=2025-04-17 |title=Mussolini et la Suisse |url=https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/fr/2025/04/mussolini-et-la-suisse/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251117071157/https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/fr/2025/04/mussolini-et-la-suisse/ |archive-date=2025-11-17 |access-date=2026-02-20 |work=Musée national - Blog sur l'histoire suisse |language=de-DE}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite web |title=Mussolini, Benito |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/027903/2010-04-06/ |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> Despite official declarations of friendship, Mussolini sometimes expressed contemptuous judgments against Swiss institutions and democracy.<ref name=":11" />

On the left, the Geneva Socialist Party was dominated by Nicole's personality and rhetoric, and Dicker's political views, which favored united action with the Communists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dicker, Jacques |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/006260/2021-06-21/ |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> The Geneva massacre of 9 November 1932 exposed the contradictions within the socialist movement and foreshadowed the split of both the Genevan Socialist Party and the Swiss Socialist Party. Relations between the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and the Genevan Socialist Party had deteriorated since 1929. In 1935, by joining the national defense effort, the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland broke with a long antimilitarist and pacifist tradition to which the French-speaking socialists were still very attached. The Spanish Civil War contributed to radicalizing these opposing positions to the point of making them irreconcilable within the same political party.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jeanneret |first=Pierre |date=1988 |title=Le Parti socialiste suisse et la guerre d'Espagne |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=szg-006:1988:38::302 |journal=Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte = Revue suisse d'histoire = Rivista storica svizzera |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=267 |doi=10.5169/seals-81001 |issn=0036-7834}}</ref>

In 1939, due to a disagreement over the German-Soviet Pact and following the Soviet invasion of Finland, the Genevan Socialist Party split in two. Léon Nicole, who supported the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was expelled from the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland in September 1939. However, the majority of members of the Vaud section and the Genevan Socialist Party, which had welcomed members of the Communist Party after its banning in Geneva in 1937, supported him and founded the Swiss Socialist Federation, with Léon Nicole as its president.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=16 January 2021 |title=Des racines et des ailes |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ps-ge.ch%2Fhistorique%2F#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url |archive-url= |website=Wikiwik Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-03-01 |title=Les lendemains de la fusillade du 9 novembre 1932 |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81a21knz1p14dbq1wn38pnx |access-date=2026-02-19 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> André Oltramare and Charles Rosselet left Léon Nicole’s Genevan Socialist Party to found the Socialist Party of Geneva, affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosselet, Charles |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/006553/2012-05-25/ |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oltramare, André |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/006463/2010-12-02/ |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> The Socialist Party of Geneva resumed the name of Geneva Socialist Party in 1941 after the banning of Léon Nicole's Genevan Socialist Party.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |title=Nicole, Léon |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/003879/2010-11-09/ |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":5" />

thumb|Uni Dufour seen from the Plainpalais plain

Nicknamed "the bunker" by its detractors,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-09-08 |title=Il est beau mon bâtiment de béton brut! |url=https://www.24heures.ch/il-est-beau-mon-batiment-de-beton-brut-778397300323 |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=24 heures |language=fr}}</ref> the Uni Dufour Building was constructed in the 1970s. Inspired by Le Corbusier, Werner-Charles Francesco, Gilbert Paux, and Jacques Vicari won the competition organized in 1965 after the fire at the {{Lang|fr|bâtiment électoral}} (election building), demolished in 1911 and rebuilt in 1915.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2021-08-18 |title=Uni Dufour, près du parc des Bastions, le bâtiment mal-aimé des Genevois {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/culture/arts-visuels/12420354-uni-dufour-pres-du-parc-des-bastions-le-batiment-malaime-des-genevois.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Genève, bâtiment électoral {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/oeuvre/vg-2416 |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The election building could accommodate up to 3,000 people and was also used for exceptional occasions, such as in 1871, the internment of French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War,<ref name=":8" /> one of the first large-scale humanitarian actions of the Red Cross. The rotunda housing the Bourbaki Panorama was built in 1880 on Boulevard de Plainpalais (now Boulevard Georges-Favon). In 1897, it was moved to La Jonction. The panorama then left Geneva to be reassembled in Lucerne in a building constructed in 1889.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bâtiment {{!}} Bourbaki Panorama Lucerne |url=https://www.bourbakipanorama.ch/fr/organisation/batiment/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.bourbakipanorama.ch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-06-12 |title=Genève, actuels boulevards Georges-Favon et de Saint-Georges: panorama de Plainpalais, dit panorama Bourbaki {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/oeuvre/vg-2755 |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

A founding member of the International Committee of the Red Cross and forerunner of metrication in Switzerland,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Journal de Genève - 22.03.1854 - Page 1 |url=https://www.letempsarchives.ch/page/JDG_1854_03_22/1/article/5203313 |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=www.letempsarchives.ch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Journal de Genève - 14.02.1852 - Page 4 |url=https://www.letempsarchives.ch/page/JDG_1852_02_14/4 |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=www.letempsarchives.ch}}</ref>{{efn|In 1855, the Dufour map (French: ''Carte Dufour''), the first topographic map of Switzerland for which the metre was adopted as the unit of length, won the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Abplanalp |first=Andrej |date=2019-07-14 |title=Henri Dufour et la carte de la Suisse |url=https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/fr/2019/07/dufour-le-cartographe/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225163218/https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/fr/2019/07/dufour-le-cartographe/ |archive-date=25 December 2024 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Musée national - Blog sur l'histoire suisse |language=de-DE |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dufour |first=G.-H. |date=1861 |title=Notice sur la carte de la Suisse dressée par l'État Major Fédéral |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/globe_0398-3412_1861_num_2_1_7582 |journal=Le Globe. Revue genevoise de géographie |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=5–22 |doi=10.3406/globe.1861.7582}}</ref> On the sidelines of the Exposition Universelle (1855) and the second Congress of Statistics held in Paris, an association with a view to obtaining a uniform decimal system of measures, weights and currencies was created in 1855.<ref name="Quinn-2012">{{Cite book |last=Quinn |first=T. J. |title=From artefacts to atoms: the BIPM and the search for ultimate measurement standards |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-990991-9 |location=Oxford |pages=12-14, 8-12, 49–72, 106-108, 144–147 |oclc=861693071}}</ref> A Committee for Weights and Measures and Monies (French: ''Comité des poids, mesures et monnaies'') was created during the Exposition Universelle (1867) in Paris and called for the international adoption of the metric system.<ref name="BIPM-150">{{Cite web |title=History – The BIPM 150 |url=https://thebipm150.org/history/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |language=}}</ref><ref name="Quinn-2012" />}} Guillaume Henri Dufour contributed to the creation of the Central European Arc Measurement as a member of the Swiss Geodetic Commission from 1861.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gautier |date=October 1893 |title=Exposé historique des travaux de la commission géodésique suisse de 1862 à 1892 |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=bsn-001:1893:21::360 |journal=Bulletin de la Société des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchâtel |volume=21 |pages=33 |doi=10.5169/seals-88335 |issn=0366-3469|first=Raoul}}</ref>{{efn|Following the Act of Mediation of 1803, Swiss cartography was entrusted to French geographical engineers. Geneva, which was part of France, was not affected by this issue. However, Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, a former magistrate from Aargau in the Helvetic Republic, saw his prospects of creating a map of Switzerland dashed. He therefore emigrated to the United States of America where Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, was lauching a call for tenders for heading the geodetic survey of East Coast of the United States. Hassler was appointed, with the endorsement of the American Philosophical Society, Superintendent of the United States Survey of the Coast, which would become the first civilian scientific agency of the federal government. At the time, geodesists incorporated reference points into a network of triangles. The relative positions of these points were determined by the angles of the triangles formed by the triangulation stations, and also by astronomical observations. Finally, the dimensions of the network of triangles were determined by measuring the length of one side of some of the triangles in the field using metal rulers. For measuring the baselines of the map survey of the American coast, Hassler designed a ruler equipped with microscopes, which he calibrated to the Committee Meter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-13 |title=Un Suisse cartographe aux USA |url=https://www.tdg.ch/un-suisse-cartographe-aux-usa-891937572678 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-03 |title=Ce qu'il faut savoir de Gallatin |url=https://www.tdg.ch/ce-quil-faut-savoir-de-gallatin-491192962891 |access-date=2026-03-21 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref>}} In 1858, an Egyptian Technical Commission had been set up to continue, by adopting the procedures instituted in Europe, the cadastre work, inaugurated by means of the cassaba (''Qaṣbah'' قصبة an ancient Arabic unit of measurement),<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-11 |title=Définition de cassaba {{!}} Dictionnaire français |url=https://www.lalanguefrancaise.com/dictionnaire/definition/cassaba |access-date=2026-03-22 |website=La langue française |language=fr}}</ref> under Muhammad Ali. This Commission suggested to Viceroy Mohammed Sa'id Pasha the idea of building geodetic devices which were ordered in France. The Khedive entrusted to Ismail Mustafa al-Falaki the study, in Europe, of the precision apparatus calibrated against the metre intended to measure the geodetic baselines and already built by Jean Brunner in Paris. Ismail Mustafa had the task to carry out the experiments necessary for determining the expansion coefficients of the two platinum and brass rulers, and to compare Egyptian standard with a known standard. The Spanish standard designed by Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero and Frutos Saavedra Meneses was chosen for this purpose, as it had served as a model for the construction of the Egyptian standard. In addition, the Spanish standard had been compared with Borda's double-toise N° 1, which served as a comparison module for the measurement of all geodetic baselines in France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jamʻīyah al-Jughrāfīyah al-Miṣrīyah |url=http://archive.org/details/bulletindelasoc00almgoog |title=Bulletin de la Société de géographie d'Égypte |date=1876 |publisher=[Le Caire] |others=University of Michigan |pages=7–8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ismail Mustafa al-Falaki |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k62478474 |title=Recherche des coefficients de dilatation et étalonnage de l'appareil à mesurer les bases géodésiques appartenant au gouvernement égyptien / par Ismaïl-Effendi-Moustapha, ... |date=1864 |language=fr}}</ref>{{efn|Egypt was, after the United States of America and Spain in Europe, the first country in Africa to use a geodetic standard calibrated against the metre. The history of the metre reveals that it was then chosen as an international scientific unit of length by the European Arc Measurement which would later become the International Association of Geodesy. The inspiration for the creation of this association came to Johann Jacob Baeyer following the measurement of the geodetic arc of Struve. In 1867 at the second General Conference of the International Association of Geodesy held in Berlin, the question of an international standard unit of length was discussed in order to combine the measurements made in different countries to determine the size and shape of the Earth. According to a preliminary proposal made in Neuchâtel the precedent year,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hirsch |first=Adolphe |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=M1PnAAAAMAAJ |title=Comptes-rendus des séances de la Commission permanente de l'Association géodésique internationale réunie à Florence du 8 au 17 octobre 1891 |date=1892 |publisher=De Gruyter, Incorporated |pages=101–109 |language=fr}}</ref> the General Conference of the European Arc Measurement recommended the adoption of the metre in replacement of the toise of Bessel.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hirsch |first=Adolphe |title=Procès-verbaux de la Conférence géodésique internationale pour la mesure des degrés en Europe, réunie à Berlin du 30 septembre au 7 octobre 1867 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079998129&seq=22 |access-date=3 February 2025 |website=HathiTrust |date=1867 |page=22 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levallois |first=J. J. |date=1 September 1980 |title=Notice historique |journal=Bulletin géodésique |language=fr |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=248–313 |bibcode=1980BGeod..54..248L |doi=10.1007/BF02521470 |issn=1432-1394 |s2cid=198204435}}</ref> In 1869, the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences sent to the French Academy of Sciences a report drafted by Otto Wilhelm von Struve, Heinrich von Wild, and Moritz von Jacobi inviting his French counterpart to undertake joint action to ensure the universal use of the metric system in all scientific work.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guillaume |first=Ed. |date=1 January 1916 |title=Le Systeme Metrique est-il en Peril? |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1916LAstr..30..242G |journal=L'Astronomie |volume=30 |pages=244–245 |bibcode=1916LAstr..30..242G |issn=0004-6302}}</ref> In 1954, the connection of the southerly extension of the Struve Geodetic Arc with an arc running north from South Africa through Egypt brought the course of a major meridian arc back to land where Eratosthenes had founded geodesy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Clarke|first1=Alexander Ross|last2=James|first2=Henry|date=1873-01-01|title=XIII. Results of the comparisons of the standards of length of England, Austria, Spain, United States, Cape of Good Hope, and of a second Russian standard, made at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton. With a preface and notes on the Greek and Egyptian measures of length by Sir Henry James|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume=163|issue=163 |pages=445–469|doi=10.1098/rstl.1873.0014|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Struve Geodetic Arc - Nomination file 1187|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1187/|access-date=2020-09-27|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|pages=143, 144|language=en}}</ref>}} In 1866, in Neuchâtel, Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero proposed the membership of Spain in the geodetic association.<ref name=":24" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sánchez Tello |first=José L. |date=March 2025 |title=General Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero: CIENTÍFICO TOTAL |url=https://www.defensa.gob.es/Galerias/gabinete/red/2025/03/p-60-63-red-425-ibaxez.pdf |journal=Revista Española de Defensa |pages=62}}</ref>{{efn|Since the metre was originally defined, each time a new measurement is made, with more accurate instruments, methods or techniques, it is said that the metre is based on some error, from calculations or measurements.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Debarbat |first=Suzanne |year=2011 |title=FROM OLD WEIGHTS AND MEASURES TO THE SI AS A NUMERICAL STANDARD FOR THE WORLD |url=https://syrte.obspm.fr/journees2010/pdf/Debarbat.pdf |access-date=December 30, 2020 |website=ui.adsabs.harvard.edu}}</ref> When Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero took part to the extension of the arc measurement of Delambre and Méchain, mathematicians like Legendre and Gauss had developed new methods for processing data, including the least squares method which allowed to compare experimental data tainted with observational errors to a mathematical model.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mesure du 1er mètre: une erreur qui changea le monde |url=https://www.techniques-ingenieur.fr/actualite/articles/mesure-du-1er-metre-une-erreur-qui-changea-le-monde-2715/ |access-date=December 30, 2020 |website=Techniques de l'Ingénieur |language=fr-FR}}</ref> Until the Hayford ellipsoid would be introduced in 1910, vertical deflections would be considered as random errors.<ref>''Géodésie in Encyclopedia Universalis''. Encyclopedia Universalis. 1996. pp. Vol 10, p. 302. {{ISBN|978-2-85229-290-1}}. OCLC 36747385.</ref> The Earth measurements thus underscored the importance of the scientific method at a time when statistics were implemented in geodesy. As a leading scientist of his time, Ibáñez was one of the 81 initial members of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and delegate of Spain to the first ISI session (now called World Statistic Congress) in Rome in 1887.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Appell |first=Paul |year=1925 |title=Le centenaire du général Ibañez de Ibéro |url=https://education.persee.fr/doc/revin_1775-6014_1925_num_79_1_7841 |journal=Revue internationale de l'enseignement |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=208–211}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=[webmastergep@unav.es] |first=Izaskun Martínez |title=Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero (Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos) |url=https://www.unav.es/gep/IbanezDeIbero.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250702225442/https://www.unav.es/gep/IbanezDeIbero.html |archive-date=2025-07-02 |access-date=2026-03-21 |website=www.unav.es}}</ref>}} In Rome, in 1887, the International Geodetic Association and the International Committee for Weights and Measures were represented at the first session of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) by their president, Carlos Ibáñez de Ibero,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Appell |first=Paul |date=1925 |title=Le centenaire du général Ibañez de Ibéro |url=https://education.persee.fr/doc/revin_1775-6014_1925_num_79_1_7841 |journal=Revue internationale de l'enseignement |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=208–211}}</ref> first director of the Geographic and Statistical Institute, member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, honorary member of the National Academy of Sciences of Córdoba, correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences, associate of the Royal Academy of Belgium and honorary member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Académicos Históricos - Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales |url=https://rac.es/sobre-nosotros/miembros/academicos-historicos/numerarios/277/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=rac.es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Proyectos |first=HI Iberia Ingeniería y |title=Real Academia de la Historia {{!}} Historia Hispánica |url=https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/22426-carlos-ibanez-e-ibanez-de-ibero |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=historia-hispanica.rah.es |language=es}}</ref>{{efn|The International Statistical Institute (ISI) was founded in 1885 during the jubilee of the Royal Statistical Society, and coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Société statistique de Paris.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bodin |first=Jean-Louis |date=2020-06-09 |title=A view on 50 years of life of the ISI: With a focus on ISI relations with official statistics1 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3233/SJI-190608 |journal=Statistical Journal of the IAOS |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=303–308 |doi=10.3233/SJI-190608}}</ref> Its origins can be traced back to a series of International Statistical Congresses, the first of which was chaired by Adolphe Quetelet and held in Brussels in 1853 after the Great Exhibition held in London at the initiative of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.<ref name=":25">{{Cite web |title=The History of the ISI {{!}} ISI |url=https://isi-web.org/history-isi |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=isi-web.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Droesbeke |first=Jean-Jacques |date=2003 |title=1841-1853 : une période faste pour la statistique belge ? |url=https://www.numdam.org/item/JSFS_2003__144_1-2_35_0/ |journal=Journal de la Société française de statistique |language=fr |volume=144 |issue=1–2 |pages=35–73 |issn=1625-7421}}</ref> The 81 founding members of the ISI constituted the elite of statisticians of this era within government administrations and scientific academies.<ref name=":25" />}} In the second half of the 19th century, this scientific undertaking, whose objective was precise mapping, took on a global dimension. It accompanied German unification and the return of democracy in France, marked the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution, and led to the Metre Convention,{{efn|In 1834, Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler measured at Fire Island the first baseline of the Survey of the Coast.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hassler |first1=Harriet |url=http://archive.org/details/ferdinandrudolph1068hass |title=Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1770–1843) |last2=Burroughs |first2=Charles A. |date=2007 |others=NIST Research Library |pages=51–52}}</ref> Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler's use of the metre and the creation of the Office of Standard Weights and Measures as an office within the Coast Survey contributed to the introduction of the Metric Act of 1866 allowing the use of the metre in the United States,<ref name="Metric Act of 1866">{{Cite web |title=Metric Act of 1866 – US Metric Association |url=https://usma.org/laws-and-bills/metric-act-of-1866#locale-notification |access-date=2021-03-15 |website=usma.org}}</ref> and preceded the choice of the metre as international scientific unit of length and the proposal by the 1867 General Conference of the European Arc Measurement (German: ''Europäische Gradmessung'') to establish the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.<ref name="BEG-1868">{{Cite book |url=http://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/escidoc:108187:4/component/escidoc:272449/Generalbericht.mitteleurop%C3%A4ische.Gradmessung%201867.pdf |title=Bericht über die Verhandlungen der vom 30. September bis 7. October 1867 zu BERLIN abgehaltenen allgemeinen Conferenz der Europäischen Gradmessung |publisher=Central-Bureau der Europäischen Gradmessung |year=1868 |location=Berlin |pages=123–134 |language=german}}</ref>}} the adoption of Greenwich meridian as Prime meridian and a new definition of the metre.{{efn|In 1875 a number of American, Asian, African and European states concluded the Metre Convention, and in 1877 an international weights-and-measures bureau was established at Breteuil. Until this time the metre was determined by the end-surfaces of a platinum rod (mètre des archives); subsequently, rods of platinum-iridium, of cross-section H, were constructed, having engraved lines at both ends of the bridge, which determine the distance of a metre. As bar lengths vary with temperature, precise measurements required known and stable temperatures and could even be affected by a scientist's body heat,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guillaume |first=Charles-Édouard |date=11 December 1920 |title=Nobel lecture: Invar and Elinvar |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1920/guillaume/lecture/ |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |page=445 |language=en-US}}</ref> so standard metres were provided with precise thermometers.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jTA8AQAAMAAJ |title=Comptes rendus des séances de la ... Conférence générale des poids et mesures |date=1890 |publisher=Gauthier-Villars |page=25 |language=fr}}</ref> The thermometers required for this purpose must be very carefully studied, and their errors of division and index error determined.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Geodesy|volume=11|last1=Clarke|first1=Alexander Ross|author-link1=Alexander Ross Clarke|last2=Helmert|first2=Friedrich Robert|author-link2=Friedrich Robert Helmert|pages=607-615|short=1}}</ref> The representation of the unit of length by means of the distance between two fine lines on the surface of a bar of metal at a certain temperature is never itself free from uncertainty and probable error, owing to the difficulty of knowing at any moment the precise temperature of the bar; and the transference of this unit, or a multiple of it, to a measuring bar will be affected not only with errors of observation, but with errors arising from uncertainty of temperature of both bars. If the measuring bar be not self-compensating for temperature, its expansion must be determined by very careful experiments. Careful comparisons with several standard toises showed that the ''Mètre des Archives'' was not exactly equal to the legal metre or 443.296 lines of the toise of Peru, but, in round numbers, ⁠{{Sfrac|1|75 000}}⁠ of the length smaller, or approximately 0.013 millimetres. The metre according to the older relation is called the “legal metre,” according to the new relation the “international metre.”<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Earth, Figure of the|volume=8|pages=801–813|short=1}}</ref>}}{{efn|The creation of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey led to the actual definition of the metre, with Charles Sanders Peirce being the first to experimentally link the metre to the wavelength of a spectral line. Charles Sanders Peirce's work promoted the advent of American science at the forefront of global metrology. Alongside his intercomparisons of artifacts of the metre and contributions to gravimetry through improvement of reversible pendulum, Peirce was the first to tie experimentally the metre to the wave length of a spectral line. According to him the standard length might be compared with that of a wave of light identified by a line in the solar spectrum. Albert Abraham Michelson soon took up the idea and improved it.<ref name="Crease-20092">{{Cite journal |last=Crease |first=Robert P. |date=2009-12-01 |title=Charles Sanders Peirce and the first absolute measurement standard |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/62/12/39/390647/Charles-Sanders-Peirce-and-the-first-absolute |journal=Physics Today |volume=62 |issue=12 |pages=39–44 |bibcode=2009PhT....62l..39C |doi=10.1063/1.3273015 |issn=0031-9228 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lenzen |first=Victor F. |date=1965 |title=The Contributions of Charles S. Peirce to Metrology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/985776 |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=109 |issue=1 |pages=29–46 |issn=0003-049X |jstor=985776}}</ref> Progress in science finally allowed the definition of the metre to be dematerialised; thus in 1960 a new definition based on a specific number of wavelengths of light from a specific transition in krypton-86 allowed the standard to be universally available by measurement. In 1983 this was updated to a length defined in terms of the speed of light; this definition was reworded in 2019:<ref name="2019metre">{{citation |title=9th edition of the SI Brochure |date=2019 |page=131 |df=dmy-all |url=https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/ |publisher=BIPM}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The metre, symbol m, is the SI unit of length. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the speed of light in vacuum {{mvar|c}} to be {{val|299792458}} when expressed in the unit m⋅s{{sup|−1}}, where the second is defined in terms of the caesium frequency {{math|Δ''&nu;''_Cs}}.}}

Where older traditional length measures are still used, they are now defined in terms of the metre – for example the yard has since 1959 officially been defined as exactly 0.9144 metre.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Robert A. |date=December 1981 |title=Foundations of the international system of units (SI) |url=https://www.physics.umd.edu/deptinfo/facilities/lecdem/services/refs/refsa/Nelson-FoundationsSI.pdf |journal=The Physics Teacher |volume=19 |issue=9 |pages=596–613 |bibcode=1981PhTea..19..596N |doi=10.1119/1.2340901}}</ref>}}

thumb|Commemorative plaque on the facade of the former Landolt Brewery|left

In 1905, the first Geneva International Motor Show was hosted in the election building also named the ''Maison des Congrès'' (Congress House).<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /> Opposite this building at the intersection of Rue De-Candolle and Rue du Conseil-Général, the Brasserie Landolt (1875-1999) was frequented by Lenin, Chaim Weizmann,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Je recherche des informations sur le café Landolt et son histoire, en tant que lieu de sociabilité des étudiant-es et de certaines personnalités politiques importantes {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/themes/culture/bibliotheques/interroge/reponses/je-recherche-des-informations-sur-le-cafe-landolt-et-son-histoire-en-tant-que-lieu-de-sociabilite-des-etudiant-es-et-de-certaines-personnalites-politiques-importantes |access-date=2026-02-19 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> then by Portuguese refugees preparing for the Carnation Revolution.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-11 |title=La brasserie Landolt, ou toute une tradition à renaître |url=https://www.tdg.ch/la-brasserie-landolt-ou-toute-une-tradition-a-renaitre-542400639535 |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=Tribune de Genève |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brulhart |first=Armand |date=Autumn 2009 |title=La Brasserie Landolt (1875 - 1999) |url=https://www.patrimoinegeneve.ch/fileadmin_genf/alerte-pdf/alerte110.pdf |journal=Alerte |issue=110 |pages=5}}</ref>

thumb|Musée d'ethnographie de Genève

Inaugurated on September 25, 1901, the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève was founded at the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard, who also established a chair of anthropology at the University of Geneva. In 1939, the museum moved to the disused Mail primary school building on Boulevard Carl-Vogt. The new MEG building, shaped like a pagoda, was inaugurated on October 31, 2014, after a four-year construction project.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le bâtiment {{!}} Musée d'ethnographie de Genève |url=https://www.meg.ch/fr/propos-du-meg/batiment |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.meg.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The museum is listed as a cultural asset of national importance and won the European Museum of the Year Award in April 2017. The issue of the restitution of looted works also arises, particularly with the 2017 motion by Cédric Wermuth, which aimed to locate objects dating from the colonial period within Switzerland and return them to their countries of origin. The case of a tusk taken from the sack of Benin City in 1897 and purchased in the 1940s is cited by the Geneva Museum of Ethnography, which highlighted this theme in its 2020-2024 strategic plan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-20 |title=Suisse et colonialisme, les luttes antiracistes réaniment le débat {{!}} RTS |url=https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/11404937-suisse-et-colonialisme-les-luttes-antiracistes-reaniment-le-debat.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=rts.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

The Patek Philippe Museum, a private Swiss watch museum, is located at the Rue des Vieux-Genadiers 7, in the Plainpalais district of Geneva.<ref>{{Cite web |last=GENEVE |first=PATEK PHILIPPE SA |title=Le Musée Patek Philippe |url=https://www.patek.com/fr/musee/le-musee-patek-philippe |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=Patek Philippe SA |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=GENEVE |first=PATEK PHILIPPE SA |title=Visitez le Musée Patek Philippe |url=https://www.patek.com/fr/musee/planifiez-votre-visite |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=Patek Philippe SA |language=fr}}</ref> The Patek Philippe company was founded in Geneva by Antoni Patek, a Polish independence fighter and political activist during Russian occupation of Poland, in 1839.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Document sans-titre |url=https://www.watches-lexic.ch/pages/fr/lnk/patek/patek1.htm |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.watches-lexic.ch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Antoni Patek – A Timeless Genius |url=https://culture.pl/en/article/antoni-patek-a-timeless-genius |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=Culture.pl |language=en}}</ref>

A museum is dedicated to the commune of Plainpalais before its absorption by the city in 1931. This museum was created in 1953 by the Plainpalais Interests Association. It is located in the former Plainpalais town hall, at 35 Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve, on the first floor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Musée du vieux Plainpalais {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/musee-vieux-plainpalais |access-date=2026-02-17 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":6" />

== Plaine de Plainpalais == [[File:Восставший из ада в Женеве - panoramio.jpg|thumb|238x238px|Frankenstein's monster]] The '''Plaine de Plainpalais''' is a large public square (78 135 square metres).<ref name="Geneva.info">{{cite web | url=http://www.geneva.info/plainpalais/ | title=Plainpalais {{!}} Geneva.info | access-date=November 16, 2014}}</ref> It is mentioned in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shelley|first=Mary Wollstonecraft|title=Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus, The Pennyroyal Edition|publisher=University of California Press|year=1994|isbn=9780520201798|pages=68, 71, 72}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-04-22 |title=Frankenstein à Plainpalais |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81a0jzk2t7b1xb8bxve20qt |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> It is home of the Plainpalais skatepark. Inaugurated in 2012, the Plainpalais skatepark is intended for young people over the age of 10 who practise skateboarding, roller skating and BMX riding at any level. Covering 3,000 m², it is one of the biggest skate parks in Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Plainpalais skate park|url=https://www.geneve.ch/en/plainpalais-skate-park|access-date=2021-08-02|website=www.geneve.ch|language=en}}</ref>

In 2010, the Municipal Fund for Contemporary Art commissioned the KLAT collective, specializing in performance and contemporary art, to create a statue representing Dr. Frankenstein's creature.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-05-17 |title=«Frankie a.k.a The Creature of Doctor Frankenstein» de KLAT, 2014 {{!}} FMAC - Fonds Municipal d'Art Contemporain de la Ville de Genève |url=https://www.fmac-geneve.ch/projets/frankie-aka-creature-doctor-frankenstein-klat-2014 |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.fmac-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The first murder of the famous monster imagined by Mary Shelley in her novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'', during her stay in Cologny in 1816, took place in Plainpalais.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2012-04-22 |title=Frankenstein à Plainpalais |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81a0jzk2t7b1xb8bxve20qt |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> Installed in 2014 near the skatepark,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Frankie a.k.a The Creature of Doctor Frankenstein {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/frankie-creature-doctor-frankenstein |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> the statue faces south, recalling the creature's flight towards Chamonix, during which it was observed by Victor Frankenstein climbing Mont Salève, visible from the Plainpalais plain. Contrary to popular belief, the monster possesses human feelings, and it is rejection that leads him to murder.<ref name=":2" /> The work also evokes certain figures of marginality and offers them visibility in the public space.<ref name=":1" />

Made up of several lawns and an asphalted section, the extreme tip of the diamond shape of the Plainpalais plain, cut by the Harry-Marc street,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Harry-Marc |url=https://noms-geographiques.app.ge.ch/node/2829 |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |language=fr}}</ref> on the Place du Cirque side, has been developed into a garden adorned with a fountain, the Parc du 14-juin, formerly Parc Harry-Marc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plaine de Plainpalais {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/plaine-plainpalais |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Parc du 14-Juin (Parc Harry-Marc) {{!}} Ville de Genève - Site officiel |url=https://www.geneve.ch/parc-14-juin-parc-harry-marc |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref> The Harry-Marc Park was renamed on May 20, 2024 in reference to June 14, 1981, the date on which the principle of equality between men and women was enshrined in the Swiss Constitution.<ref name=":3" />

Harry Marc, whose real name was Gilbert Pichon, was the owner of the {{Lang|fr|Café des Beaux-Arts}}, a regular haunt for actors and politicians such as Michel Simon, Jean Marais, Fernand Reynaud, and François Mitterrand. His greatest achievement was the creation of the Free Commune of Plainpalais Foundation, a philanthropic association whose symbol is a pelican holding out its alms bowl to the Genevan eagle.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-05-23 |title=Gilbert Pichon, dit Harry-Marc |url=https://notrehistoire.ch/documents/01k81cd15xeqtnrk3fjdwbmgak |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=notrehistoire.ch |language=fr}}</ref> At a funfair he organized annually, Gilbert Pichon, disguised as the mayor, would have himself weighed and collect his weight in coins, which were then donated to his charities.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gilbert Pichon dit Harry-Marc {{!}} Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie |url=https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/gilbert-pichon-dit-harry-marc |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=www.bge-geneve.ch |language=fr}}</ref>

== Notes == {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

== See also == [[File:Tombe d'Adrien Lachenal, cimetière des Rois, Genève.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Adrien Lachenal, Cimetière des Rois, Geneva.]] * Aga Khan V * Renée Bordier * Micheline Calmy-Rey * Suzanne Ferrière * Liebmann Hersch * Pierre Krähenbühl * Juliette Lasserre * Lisa Mazzone * Lucie Odier * Tariq Ramadan * Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice * Henri Schmitt * Louis Segond * Marie Tourte-Cherbuliez * Lucien Tronchet * Carina Tyrrell * Anne-Marie Walters * Assisted reproductive technology

{{Portal bar|Switzerland}} {{Authority control}}

{{Coord|46|11|38|N|6|08|29|E|region:CH_type:city_source:kolossus-frwiki|display=title}}

Category:Former municipalities of the canton of Geneva