Geneva and Related Topics

Basel

City in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine.

The Roman theatre in Augusta Raurica, one of the most important Roman archaeological sites in Switzerland

Basel Minster, built between 1019 and 1500

1493 woodcut of Basel, from the Nuremberg Chronicle

Map of Basel in 1642, engraved by Matthäus Merian, oriented with SW at the top and NE at the bottom.

First World Zionist Congress in Basel, 1897 (Stadtcasino)

Basel (in the upper left corner) as seen from Bettingen (television tower St. Chrischona) facing France

The Rhine in Basel as Switzerland's gateway to the sea

Basel Bahnhof SBB, self-proclaimed "world's first international railway station."

Roche Tower, the tallest building in Switzerland

Inauguration ceremony of the University of Basel, 1460

Tinguely's Carnival Fountain (Fasnachtsbrunnen)

The Kunstmuseum Basel, oldest public museum of art in Europe

The Fondation Beyeler by Renzo Piano, located in Riehen

Top Secret Drum Corps at the 2009 Basel Tattoo

Roger Federer at the 2010 Australian Open

Global seat of the Bank for International Settlements

Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich and Geneva) with about 175,000 inhabitants.

The three emblems in use: Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Crystal

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide, which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering.

The Red Cross, after the Battle of Gravelotte in 1870.

Henry Dunant, author of A Memory of Solferino

Original document of the First Geneva Convention, 1864

"Committee of the Five": Gustave Moynier, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Henry Dunant, Louis Appia, Théodore Maunoir

Memorial commemorating the first use of the Red Cross symbol in an armed conflict during the Battle of Dybbøl (Denmark) in 1864; jointly erected in 1989 by the national Red Cross societies of Denmark and Germany

War 1914–1918. Geneva, Rath Museum. International Prisoners-of-War Agency. Researches department. German section. Express messages and communications to families.

Group picture of the volunteers – mostly women – in front of the Musée Rath in 1914

Ernest Hemingway in a US Red Cross Hospital in 1918

War 1939–1945. Geneva, Central Prisoners of war Agency, Electoral building / Palace of the General Council

Photo taken by Rossel at Theresienstadt. Most of the children were murdered at Auschwitz in the fall of 1944.

Marcel Junod, delegate of the ICRC, visiting POWs in Germany

Telegram by ICRC delegate Fritz Bilfinger from Hiroshima three weeks after the atomic bombing

Budapest 1945. Repatriation of 2000 Italian prisoners of war.

Henry Davison, Founding father of the League of Red Cross societies

Peace Nobel Prize ceremony in 1963. From left to right: Crown Prince Harald of Norway, King Olav of Norway, ICRC president Leopold Boissier, League Chairman John A. MacAulay.

Entry to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva

A Turkish Red Crescent staff conducting activities for children

The emblem of the International Committee of the Red Cross (French: Comité international de la Croix-rouge)

An ambulance owned by the Mexican Red Cross

An Israeli stamp commemorating the 25th anniversary of Magen David Adom, issued 11 January 1955

The Logistics Centre of the Finnish Red Cross in Tampere, Finland

The flag of Switzerland – basis of the original Red Cross

Flag of the Ottoman Empire (later Turkey) – basis of original Red Crescent

International emblem for Magen David Adom outside Israel.

A Magen David Adom worker in the Tel Aviv civil defense, 1939

Gōtarō Mikami's Red Cross flag with which in 1905 he deflected from his field hospital in Manchuria the onslaught of the Russian army

The MV Red Cross in New York harbour ca 1915

Back at his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published using his own money in 1862.

Lake Geneva

Deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France.

View of Lake Geneva about between Vevey in front, Lausanne in the back behind Mont Pèlerin (CH) on the right and Évian-les-Bains (F) on the left, shot from a place between Caux and Glion above Montreux

View of the lake and the Chablais Alps from Caux

CGN paddle steamer in 1926 near Vevey with the Dents du Midi in background

The river has its source at the Rhône Glacier near the Grimsel Pass to the east of the lake and flows down through the canton of Valais, entering the lake between Villeneuve and Le Bouveret, before flowing slowly towards its egress at Geneva.

John Calvin

Calvin was originally interested in the priesthood, but he changed course to study law in Orléans and Bourges. Painting titled Portrait of Young John Calvin from the collection of the Library of Geneva.

William Farel was the reformer who persuaded Calvin to stay in Geneva. 16th-century painting. In the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Geneva.

Calvin preached at St. Pierre Cathedral, the main church in Geneva.

Idelette and Calvin had no children survive infancy.

Sixteenth-century portrait of John Calvin by an unknown artist. From the collection of the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of Geneva)

Michael Servetus exchanged many letters with Calvin until he was denounced by Calvin and executed.

John Calvin at 53 years old in an engraving by René Boyvin

The Collège Calvin is now a college preparatory school for the Swiss Maturité.

Traditional grave of Calvin in the Cimetière de Plainpalais in Geneva; the exact location of his grave is unknown.

Title page from the final edition of Calvin's magnum opus, Institutio Christiane Religionis, which summarises his theology.

Joachim Westphal disagreed with Calvin's theology on the eucharist.

Calvin wrote many letters to religious and political leaders throughout Europe, including this one sent to Edward VI of England.

The last moments of Calvin (Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1880–1883)

John Calvin memorial medal by László Szlávics, Jr., 2008

John Calvin (Middle French: Jean Cauvin; French: Jean Calvin ; 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor, and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation.

Strasbourg

Prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament.

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor visiting Strasbourg in 1414, detail of a painting by Léo Schnug

Panorama from the Barrage Vauban with the medieval bridge Ponts Couverts in the foreground (the fourth tower is hidden by trees at the left) and the cathedral in the distance on the right.

Place Gutenberg with statue of Gutenberg and Carousel.

View of the Ill with Église Saint-Thomas.

The baroque organ of the Église Saint-Thomas

The Pavillon Joséphine (rear side) in the Parc de l'Orangerie

The Château de Pourtalès (front side) in the park of the same name

The Ill, seen from the terrace of the Palais Rohan

One of Strasbourg's trams passes over one of its canals, whilst a tourist trip boat passes underneath

The Palace of Europe of the Council of Europe

Stade de la Meinau, home of RC Strasbourg

Together with Basel (Bank for International Settlements), Geneva (United Nations), The Hague (International Court of Justice) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that is not a state capital that hosts international organisations of the first order.

Romandy

French-speaking part of western Switzerland.

French-speaking population in the Canton of Fribourg in 2000.

A road sign in Saint-Gingolph, Valais, spelling a dialectal greeting bondzo! alongside the Standard French bienvenue (2013 photograph).

The majority of the romand population lives in the western part of the country, especially the Arc Lémanique region along Lake Geneva, connecting Geneva, Vaud and the Lower Valais.

Canton of Geneva

One of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.

The cantons and allies of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 18th century. Geneva is a group of small territories in the southwest.

The County of Geneva and surrounding territories in around 1200.

Territories acquired by Berne from Geneva, 1339-1798

L'Escalade, the last attempt by Savoy to take Geneva by force, 1602

Charles Pictet de Rochemont, the Geneva envoy to the Congress of Vienna who negotiated the canton’s borders

Borders after the Congress of Vienna: in yellow, the previous lands of Geneva; in blue, towns ceded by France; in pink, towns ceded by Savoy.

View from Reculet mountain towards Geneva. The canton occupies most of the Geneva basin, the valley between the Reculet (France) and Mount Salève (France). The Alps are visible in the background, covered by clouds

The headquarters of the local cantonal bank, the BCGE

Geneva has the densest vineyards of Switzerland. Here, the largest wine-making municipality of Switzerland, Satigny.

It is composed of forty-five municipalities and the seat of the government and parliament is in the City of Geneva.

Vaud

One of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.

Bailiwicks of Bern in Vaud in the 18th century

Built by the Bishop of Lausanne during the 15th century, Château Saint-Maire has been the seat of the cantonal government since 1803

The room of the Grand Council of Vaud, the parliament of the canton of Vaud

Lausanne, capital and largest city in Vaud

On the other hand, there are three enclaves of the canton of Fribourg (Estavayer-le-lac, Vuissens, Surpierre), as well as two enclaves of the canton of Geneva (Céligny), that are surrounded by the canton of Vaud.

United Nations

Intergovernmental organization whose purpose is to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.

1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the UN original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states

The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue

Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active secretary-general from 1953 until his death in 1961.

Kofi Annan, secretary-general from 1997 to 2006

Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters, seen in 2007

Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet general secretary, addressing the UN General Assembly in December 1988

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, demonstrates a vial with alleged Iraq chemical weapon probes to the UN Security Council on Iraq war hearings, 5 February 2003

Current secretary-general, António Guterres

The ICJ ruled that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law.

Under Sukarno, Indonesia became the first and only country to leave the United Nations.

A Nepalese soldier on a peacekeeping deployment providing security at a rice distribution site in Haiti during 2010

The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1949

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme reading the news that smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1980

In Jordan, UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp.

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the UN—diploma in the lobby of the UN Headquarters in New York City

Marking of the UN's 70th anniversary – Budapest, 2015

When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down, and its headquarters in Geneva remained empty throughout the war.

Hautecombe Abbey, where many of the dukes are buried.

House of Savoy

Royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region.

They once had claims on the modern canton of Vaud, where they occupied the Château of Chillon in Switzerland, but their access to it was cut by Geneva during the Protestant Reformation, after which it was conquered by Bern.