Things to do
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Cathedrale Saint-Pierre
The cathedral on the old town's high point, stripped bare at the Reformation, where Calvin preached from 1536. An archaeological site under the floor runs back to the fourth century and the north tower is climbed for the view over the lake.
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Palais des Nations
The European headquarters of the United Nations, built in the 1930s for the League of Nations in a park given to the city, with the Salle des Droits de l'Homme ceiling by Miquel Barcelo. Tours run on weekdays with a passport.
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Hotel Beau-Rivage
A hotel on the right bank since 1865, run by the same family for five generations, where the Empress Elisabeth of Austria died after being stabbed on the quay outside in 1898. The atrium runs the full height of the building.
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Jet d'Eau
A fountain throwing five hundred litres a second to a height of 140 metres from a jetty in the harbour, started in 1886 as a pressure release valve for the city's hydraulic network and kept because people liked it.
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Musee international de la Croix-Rouge
The Red Cross museum opposite the UN, organised around three exhibitions on defending human dignity, restoring family links and limiting natural risk, each by a different architect. It is a hard museum and a very good one.
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Parc des Bastions
A park below the old town holding the Reformation Wall, a hundred metres of stone with Calvin, Farel, Beze and Knox carved five metres high, and the giant outdoor chess boards that are always in use.
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Patek Philippe Museum
A watch museum in Plainpalais holding the firm's own archive and a collection of Genevan enamel and portable clocks from the sixteenth century on. It explains the craft the city was built on better than any shop window.