Geneva Introduction Walking Tour (Self Guided), Geneva

The city of Geneva enjoys picturesque location at the southern tip of the expansive Lac Léman (aka Lake Geneva), surrounded by the Alps and Jura mountains, including the dramatic Mont Blanc peak.

The city was mentioned for the first time in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, derived probably from the Celtic genawa- or genu- ("bend, knee"), in the sense of a bending river or estuary. It was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. The town became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the Bishopric of Vienne in the 4th.

After 1400 medieval county of Geneva became the Genevois province of Savoy (albeit not extending to the city proper, until the reformation of the seat of the Bishop of Geneva). In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, when it was granted a charter giving it a high degree of self-governance. In the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation reached the city, causing religious strife, during which Savoy rule was thrown off and Geneva allied itself with the Swiss Confederacy.

In 1541, with Protestantism on the rise, John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer and proponent of Calvinism, became the spiritual leader of the city and established the Republic of Geneva. By the 18th century, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, Geneva was admitted to the Swiss Confederation. The French influence, however, is still widespread here, from the language to gastronomy and more.

Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of many international organizations, such as the Headquarters of Europe’s United Nations and the Red Cross, and a global hub for diplomacy and banking.

Today mostly known as the city of watches and jewelry making, Geneva boasts of number of notable landmarks, such as the famous Jet D’eau, the Flower Clock, to mention but a few. To acquaint yourself with these and other attractions of Geneva, take this self-guided tour.