Museums

It can be proved that Vacheron Constantin is the oldest watch manufacturer in Switzerland. The clocks in the current collection are a homage to both founders, Jean Marc Vacheron (1731-1805) and Francois Constantin (1788-1854).

The Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art displays works from 40 public and private collections in Switzerland. There are no pieces by well-known artists - apart from a few exceptions - the art itself is the focal point.

Albert works with unusual raw materials and occupies a leading position in the manufacture of modern jewellery. In 1999 he opened the Musée des Cabinotiers in Geneva.

The exhibitions in an area of 7,000 square metres allow you to see fabulous archaeological, fine art and applied art treasures. The archaeological section gives you the chance to immerse yourself in local and regional prehistory, Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquity and Etruscan, Greek and Roman civilizations.

The Natural History Museum is one of the most modern in Europe. Along the two kilometers of corridors over four floors, you will encounter 3,500 mammals, birds, vertebrates, invertebrates and numerous stuffed specimens of the regional, exotic and marine wildlife.

Whether through sculptures, masks, jewels, ritual objects, cloth and all types of ornaments, or through forms, styles and materials, so-called primitive man has always gone in search of beauty and the expression of it.

More than 10 centuries' worth of Chinese and Japanese art are displayed in the Baur Collections, a marvellous voyage through Eastern civilizations. Presented with impeccable sobriety and elegance, the multitude of pieces assembled by Alfred Baur is of exceptional quality.

The Ethnography Museum, one of the most important and diverse collections in Switzerland, displays 60,000 objects, 50,000 photos, 20,000 books and thousands of documents.

The Ariana Museum houses one of the richest and most beautiful ceramic and glass collections in Europe.

Photographs and documentary films, objects and documents are exhibited in relation to each other in audiovisual sequences and on computer screens.

A visit to the Palais allows you to see certain conference rooms, notably the Counsel Room, which is decorated with superb frescoes, and the Assembly Room, which is even more vast than the Paris Opera!

Over three floors there are over 2,000 objects exhibitited, dating from 1839 to 1980. The owner and president of the company, Philippe Stern, owns 1,000 of them.

Forces Motrices, the imposing cultural center, “swims” in the middle of the Rhone River. Located in the former water works it is today a renovated oasis with theater and opera performances as well as exhibition halls with a capacity of 950 persons.

The Reformation in Switzerland began amongst others in Calvin's city of Geneva. The history of the movement is documented here in the Museum of the Reformation.

Mamco is set in an old factory building, and has stayed true to the memory of the place. The industrial architecture from the '50s has left room for a flexible museographic plan that changes constantly. A wide range of art is displayed, dating from the early '60s to the present day. The displays, videos, paintings, photographs and sculptures have been donated from public and private collections.

Martin Bodmer (1899-1971) thought of his library as a museum, and the building project was entrusted to the famous architect Mario Botta. The museum invites the visitor to follow the human being trail, from the origins of handwriting, via the ancient East, ancient Greece and Rome, the Bible and Christianity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and finally arriving at the age of Romanticism in Europe, which leads directly to the modern day.

This religious painting from 1444 was the first in Europe to incorporate a realistic landscape into a Biblical scene.

An astronomical pocket watch with 33 complications: the most complex watch ever made!

Model by Auguste Magnin (1841-1903) depicting the town of Geneva as it was before 1850, enclosed by its bastions and ramparts.