Explore Geneva

St. Pierre Cathedral stands on the hill of the old town, where the present Romanesque-Gothic church was begun in the 12th century; a neoclassical portico was added to its west front in the 18th century. Since 1535 it has been Geneva's main Protestant church, where John Calvin preached. Visitors can climb its towers and see the archaeological site below.

The Reformation Wall is a monument about 100 metres long, set into the old city walls in the Parc des Bastions, inaugurated in 1909 for the 400th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Its centre holds statues of Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox, flanked by figures and bas-reliefs of other people and events of the Protestant Reformation.

The Flower Clock is a working clock laid out in flower beds on the western side of the Jardin Anglais, beside the lakeshore. Created in 1955 as a tribute to Geneva's watchmakers, it has a face about five metres across planted with some 6,500 flowers and shrubs, which are replaced as the seasons change, and a second hand 2.5 metres long.

The Jet d'Eau is a fountain at the point where Lake Geneva flows into the Rhône, throwing 500 litres of water per second about 140 metres into the air. First built in 1891 as a pressure-relief valve for a hydraulic network, it is run by the city utility SIG and can be reached on foot along a stone jetty from the left bank.

Broken Chair is a 12-metre wooden sculpture of a chair with one leg torn off, standing on the Place des Nations opposite the Palace of Nations. Designed by Daniel Berset and built by carpenter Louis Genève from 5.5 tonnes of wood, it was put up by Handicap International in 1997 as a protest against landmines and cluster bombs.

The Musée Ariana is the Swiss museum of ceramics and glass, set in a domed neoclassical and neo-baroque building of 1877–1884 on Avenue de la Paix, near the Palace of Nations. Built by the collector Gustave Revilliod and named after his mother, it shows part of a collection of about 20,000 objects spanning twelve centuries.

CERN Science Gateway is the visitor centre of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Meyrin, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and opened in October 2023. Its pavilions, linked by a bridge across the road, hold hands-on exhibitions on accelerators, the universe and the quantum world, plus lab workshops, science shows and guided tours.