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Ninety seconds on the Palais des Nations
The Nations stop, served by bus 5 and tram 15, is about five minutes on foot from the visitors' entrance at the Pregny Gate. Bus 5 runs there directly from Geneva Cointrin airport.
The Pregny Gate is where visitors enter the Palais des Nations. It is at 14 Avenue de la Paix in Geneva, facing the International Committee of the Red Cross building and beside the Geneva Hotel School.
Yes. Every visitor needs a valid passport from a UN Member or Observer State, and an identity card issued in the Schengen Zone is accepted in its place.
Individual visitors join a scheduled tour, and places sell out quickly. Dates for the following month go on the booking platform on the 20th of each month, and each confirmed booking brings a QR-coded badge by email. The official UN Geneva website is the only place to reserve these tours.
The guided tour lasts about one hour, and security screening at the entrance takes about 30 minutes. The route covers roughly 2 km on foot and can be difficult for people with mobility issues. Tours do not run on official UN holidays.
The tour visits rooms in the historic parts of the Palais, and which ones are open depends on the day's meetings. The most famous is Room XX, renamed Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room, which seats 754 under a dome redesigned as a multicoloured grotto.
A cave-like ceiling in many colours hangs over the hall where the Human Rights Council meets, and a guided tour of the Palais is your way in to it and to the other working rooms of the United Nations in Geneva.
The room to look for is the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilisations Room. The Spanish artist Miquel Barceló reworked its 929 square metre dome into a grotto, with resin stalactites in every colour hung from an aluminium honeycomb. He called the cave the first meeting place of humans, and his ceiling now hangs over the 754 seats where the Human Rights Council often meets.
The rest of the tour runs through the wing built for the League of Nations; depending on the day's meetings, you may see the Assembly Hall and the Council Chamber. The Palais is still one of the largest diplomatic conference centres in the world, so a room you pass may be set for a meeting that afternoon.
The Broken Chair is 12 metres of wood with one of its legs blown off. The sculptor Daniel Berset made it for Handicap International, to remember the victims of landmines and press governments to ban them. It has become one of the best-known pieces of public art in Switzerland.
Every tour needs a slot booked ahead, and your passport is checked at the gate. Individual dates for the next month go online on the 20th, so book on the day they appear. Each person then receives a digital badge with a QR code by email, to print or keep on your phone.
On the day, be at the meeting point named in your confirmation half an hour before the tour time. The guide then leads the group through whichever historic rooms the day's meetings leave open.
Delegates work in the rooms you pass, so stay with your guide and keep your voice down. After the tour you can stroll through Ariana Park to see the restored Celestial Sphere.
Allow extra time for the journey, because the Tram des Nations roadworks affect buses, trams and cars around the Palais. If you drive, use the large underground car park at the Place des Nations, entered from Rue de Varembé.
The Broken Chair stands on the Place des Nations, so see it on your way to the gate.
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