Geneva Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

The route: from Notre-Dame by Cornavin via the lake and the Old Town to Victoria Hall

10 stops · about 44 min walking · start: Basilica of Notre-Dame · finish: Victoria Hall

The hunt starts at the Basilica of Notre-Dame near Cornavin station and heads down to the lake and the Brunswick Monument. After crossing to the Jardin Anglais and the National Monument, you climb into the Old Town to St Peter's Cathedral, then continue to the Museum of Art and History, the house where Liszt and Marie d'Agoult lived and the Reformation Wall. Place de Neuve and the Grand Théâtre come next, and the hunt finishes at Victoria Hall. Every clue is on a monument, a façade or a wall in the open air, so neither the cathedral nor the theatre asks you for a ticket during the game, and if your hotel is nearer the lake or the Bastions, the app lets you begin there and reshuffles the order.

Open the route map ↗

1. 

   1Basilica of Notre-DameStart

   Geneva's main Catholic church stands a short walk from Cornavin station and was built in the mid-19th century in the Gothic Revival style. It reflected the growing Catholic community in the city of Calvin, and its pointed arches, pinnacles and tall windows deliberately recall the French cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

2. 

   2Brunswick Monument

   This richly decorated mausoleum on the lakefront holds Duke Charles II of Brunswick, who died in Geneva in 1873 and left his fortune to the city on condition that it build him a worthy tomb. The city modelled it on the Gothic tombs of the Scaliger family in Verona, so look up at its pinnacles and canopied niches.

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3. 

   3National Monument

   In the Jardin Anglais two bronze women stand together: Helvetia, who represents Switzerland, and Geneva. The monument by Robert Dorer was unveiled in 1869 and celebrates Geneva joining the Swiss Confederation in 1815.

4. 

   4St Peter's Cathedral

   Building began around 1160 on a hill that was already a place of worship in Roman times, and the cathedral became Protestant during the Reformation in the 1530s. John Calvin preached here, and the neoclassical portico with its columns was added to the medieval church in the 18th century.

5. 

   5Museum of Art and History

   One of the largest museums in Switzerland, it opened in 1910 in a monumental building by the architect Marc Camoletti. Its collection includes Konrad Witz's altarpiece of 1444, whose Miraculous Draught of Fishes is set on Lake Geneva and is one of the earliest realistic landscapes in European painting.

6. 

   6Liszt and Marie d'Agoult's House

   In 1835 the young pianist Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult, who had left her husband for him, came to Geneva and lived in this house. Their first daughter, Blandine, was born in the city that year, and Liszt taught piano at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory.

7. 

   7Reformation Wall

   This 100-metre wall in the Parc des Bastions was begun in 1909, the 400th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, and runs along the old city moat. Its central statues show William Farel, Calvin, Theodore Beza and John Knox, and above them is carved Geneva's motto, Post Tenebras Lux, light after darkness.

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8. 

   8Place de Neuve

   Place de Neuve lies at the foot of the Old Town, where the Porte Neuve, one of the gates of the old city fortifications, once stood. Today it is framed by the Grand Théâtre, the Conservatoire de Musique and the Musée Rath, and at its centre stands the equestrian statue of General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, who led the federal army in 1847.

9. 

   9Grand Théâtre de Genève

   Geneva's opera house opened on Place de Neuve in 1879, and its richly decorated façade recalls the Paris Opera of the same period. A fire in 1951 destroyed the stage and much of the auditorium, which was rebuilt with a modern interior and reopened in 1962.

10. 

    10Victoria HallFinish

    This concert hall was paid for by Daniel Barton, the British consul in Geneva, and named after Queen Victoria when it opened in 1894. It is the home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and after a fire in 1984 its richly decorated hall was restored.