4 June 2012
My business in Geneva got over early and I decided to use the opportunity to have a look around. Geneva is a very tourist friendly city. In fact, the city authorities provides all those that stay in hotels with a pass that allows free transport in public transport like trams and buses. This is the first first time I have seen such an arrangement in any city and I have to say that once you get used to the transport systems, this is very convenient especially as taxis are very expensive.
I have found that the cathedrals in most cities have good stories and so my first port of call was the Saint Peter’s Cathedral. It was within walking distance of my hotel and so I decided to walk there. On the way I passed by Lake Geneva with its iconic fountain that rises 140 metres into the air. It pumps out water at the rate of 500 litres per second.
Geneva itself looks like any other Western European city – quite organised and orderly.
Just past the lake is the famous flower clock, which is a symbol of the great watch making traditions of Geneva. It was rather busy with many tourists (including Indians) posing in front of the clock. It was a bit of a wait to get a moment with no one blocking the view!
I was particularly interested in the Cathedral as Geneva has a history of having been the protestant equivalent of Catholic Rome. In 1536, a person named John Galvin arrived in Geneva. He was fleeing the persecution of Protestants in France. St. Peter’s at Geneva has been a Christian place of devotion since 4th Century and John Galvin tried to bring in Protestantism but was expelled from Geneva in 1536. However, he made a triumphant return in 1541 and Protestantism ruled in Geneva till 18th Century. The French influence won over then and Geneva returned to Catholicism. Geneva is a city that speaks French even now and all the road signs are in French.
St. Peter’s Cathedral stands on a hill, as is the case with most places of worship. I have noticed this with Hindu temples as well; devotees have an urge to build the edifices for their gods at the highest points in their settlements. The Cathedral itself is a Gothic style building and resembles many others that I have seen in France and Italy. However, the interiors are not very rich, probably because of its Protestant past.
John Galvin preached from this Cathedral and the chair he used is still kept here. In keeping with the Protestant traditions, it is a simple, practical chair with no decorations.
There are two towers in the Cathedral – the North tower and the South tower. The North Tower offers panoramic views and is accessed through a steep flight of steps and you can then cross over to the South Tower. There are two big bells in The North Tower called “La Clemence” and “La Bellerive” and the former is rung for significant events in the city. These are very big bells and there are five smaller bells in the South Tower.
Until this time, I was not very impressed with the Cathedral as it was rather spartan because of the Calvinist influence. It looked like any other large church but not as ornate as one finds in places like Italy. I had read that there was an archaeological site which had been excavated under the church. I was in two minds on whether to look this up or not as I felt I may be squeezed for time for the next item on the agenda, a visit to the United Nations building in Geneva. In the end, I decided to give it a shot, especially as I was finished with the cathedral rather quickly; what a fortunate decision that was!
In 1976, the Cantonal Archaeological Service started excavating the site under and around the cathedral. This provided a wealth of information about the city and the site on which the current cathedral stands. This information is arranged as an exhibition, spread over 3,000 square metres.
Geneva first started as a settlement on the shores of Lake Geneva and the first traces of human presence go back to 11,000 BC in the Palaeolithic period. The Allobroges (Celts) ruled Geneva from around 330 BC till they were over thrown by Julius Caesar in 58 BC during his Gallic campaign. From then on, Geneva remained a Roman town till about 400 AD and then became a Christian community.
The site on which the cathedral stands today became a sacred spot at around 100 BC when an important Allobrogian chieftain was buried here in this site overlooking the lake, the port and the bridge over the river Rhone. He must have been an important chieftain and that must have been why a monument was built for him. The skeleton can be seen even today and it was a strange feeling to look at the skeleton of a person that lived more than two thousand years ago. It was also interesting to think that the same spot remained a place of worship despite it having passed through different belief systems – the Allobrogians, Romans and the Christians. The skeleton does not have a head as that must have been removed to take to another place of worship.
I have always been curious about the practice of burying the bodies of famous people in churches. This site started out as the burial ground of an Allobrogian chieftain and later on, a Roman crypt was built here. Later on, when Christianity arrived, there was a cult of relics and more bodies were buried here. So, I guess this interest to bury their important people in places of worship or converting the tombs into places of worship was something that was carried over from Pagan beliefs to modern day religions.
The excavations themselves were quite interesting. The site started out as a single small building and developed later on into a complex with multiple buildings meant for different purposes like worship, living etc. Over a period of time, these all finally got incorporated into the very large building we see today. Given below are some of the interesting sights from the excavations.
Mould used for making the “La Clemence” bell, fifteenth century
Pots from second century
Heating room for corn processing, third or fourth century
Mosaic on the floor of the reception hall dating back to AD 400
Mosaic on the floor of the reception hall dating back to AD 400
My next stop was the United Nations building. This building was originally built for League of Nations between 1929 and 1938 and is called Palais des Nations. It was expanded in 50s and 60s and there are two parts to the building now. The building itself looks impressive form the outside. The view with the flags all lined up was very nice indeed.
Right outside the main entrance to the Palais des Nations is a huge sculpture of a broken chair. This is a huge wooden chair with a broken leg, constructed out of 5.5 tons of wood and is 12 metres high. Swiss artist Daniel Berset was the sculptor. It was a project of Handicap International and was conceived as a reminder to the devastating effects of land mines and cluster bombs. It was first erected in 1997 and was intended to remain for three months till the signature of the Ottawa Treaty. However, as is often the case with UN, the signing of the treaty got delayed and about 34 countries including India are yet to sign it. The sculpture became very popular with the public and it remains there even today, even after having been temporarily removed in 2005 to allow remodeling of the Palais des nations.
I felt that this was a very aptly conceived sculpture which effectively conveyed the damage that land mines cause. These mines are often using during a war and rarely removed after the war is over and these lethal devices stay active and trigger off when some unsuspecting soul steps on those. The damage that results is often the loss of a limb. The broken chair conveys this message very strongly.
Access to the building was reasonably easy and I was in time to join the guided tour. We started off by seeing a couple of meeting rooms and the walking through some corridors that were filled with a lot of art work. All of those have been donated by various countries.
The League of Nations part was more impressive than the sections added later. The main attraction was the Council Chamber of League of Nations. The most impressive aspect of the room is the gold and sepia murals painted on the walls and ceiling. This was a gift from the Spanish government and was painted by the famous Catalan artist Jose Maria Cert between March 1935 and May 1936. It depicts the progress of mankind through health, technology freedom and space. The guide explained it as a series and pointed to a picture as the culmination of the series. This shows five muscular men, representing five continents (wonder which one of the inhabited continents they left out), coming together and holding a weapon (a bow).
I felt it rather odd that a room dedicated to the promotion of peace would have people holding a weapon together instead of destroying it. So, I looked it up on the web and found that the culmination of the series is actually that of the five giants holds their hands together in triumph.
Interestingly, one person in the tour asked the guide whether the diplomats that sit in this room and take decisions know the meaning of this art work. She was at a loss for a proper response on that one and after a momentary silence, said that she expected them to know as they were diplomats!
The views as one looked out of the corridor connecting the League of Nations building to the new building were very good. We also a saw a peacock on the lawns and that elicited a lot of excitement from the group.
The tour was soon over and I walked back to the entrance to catch a bus. I was walking past the park that surrounds the building and suddenly, I saw a statue of Gandhi. It was a solitary statue in the midst of nothing – looked forgotten and lost. This struck me a bit and I stood there for a few moments looking at it. Gandhi, arguably the biggest promoter of peace ever, the man who showed that empires could be defeated without resorting to violence, the man whose messages are perhaps the most relevant today in a world tottering on the brink because of greed and hatred, sits forgotten in the very place that supposedly works towards promotion of world peace!
As in any old city, there is an old town in Geneva too and that is around the Cathedral area. I went back there to have a walk around the place. After sauntering around a bit, I dropped into an English pub. There were not many customers there and I struck up a conversation with the bartender, Phil. A couple I had met at the UN building had told me that they had just come from a visit to CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), where the research on the Higgs-Boson particle was progressing. When we were talking, I told Phil that I would have liked to visit CERN. He then told me that he was doing his research for his Ph.D. thesis at CERN! He is from Boston and having finished his Masters there, is doing research at CERN. He was not on the Higgs-Boson project and was involved in research on metrics and measurement, related to nuclear particles. It was nice to talk with Phil and as I left I could not but be impressed with this chap who was working as a bartender to fund his studies.