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Families sitting on the steps below the Reformation Wall
AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT

The Reformation Wall and the Parc des Bastions

A hundred meters of carved stone set against the old city walls, with Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox standing five meters tall, in the park where Geneva's university grew up.

Photo: Annirok, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

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IWhat you are looking at

The Reformation Wall and the Parc des Bastions

Bronze busts under the painted walls of the university hall at the Bastions
Bronze busts under the painted walls of the university hall at the BastionsMHM55, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. I
    The four reformersFarel, Calvin, Beza and Knox at the center, each about five meters tall, in Geneva gowns
  2. II
    The mottoPost Tenebras Lux, Geneva's motto, cut in large letters along the length of the wall
  3. III
    The six protectorsStatues of Coligny, William the Silent and Cromwell among the champions of the Reformation abroad
  4. IV
    The two dates1536, the adoption of the Reformation, at one end; 1602, the Escalade, at the other
  5. V
    The water basinA long pool at the foot of the wall, recalling the moat of the old fortifications
  6. VI
    The two memorial stonesStones for Luther and Zwingli at the two ends of the esplanade facing the wall
IIThe sight in full

From darkness to light

Why it matters

Geneva calls itself the Protestant Rome, and this is where it says so in stone. The International Monument to the Reformation, known to everyone as the Reformation Wall, runs for about a hundred meters along the foot of the old ramparts in the Parc des Bastions, directly below the old town and the Treille terrace.

The gate of the Bastion Saint-Léger with its garden and small pavilion
The gate of the Bastion Saint-Léger with its garden and small pavilionMHM55, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

It was begun in 1909, for the four hundredth anniversary of John Calvin's birth and the three hundred and fiftieth of the founding of the Geneva Academy, the school Calvin created and which became the University of Geneva, whose oldest buildings stand in the same park, behind you as you face the wall. The monument was inaugurated in 1917.

The wall is more than a portrait of Calvin. It sets the Reformation of Geneva inside a European and American story, from Scotland and the Netherlands to New England and Hungary, and it names the men who carried Calvin's ideas to each of them.

Who is on the wall

The trees of the Parc des Bastions and the rooftops beyond, from a university terrace
The trees of the Parc des Bastions and the rooftops beyond, from a university terraceCredits to Mourad Ben Abdallah / Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

At the center stand the four men most closely tied to the Reformation in Geneva. Guillaume Farel was one of those who brought it to the city; John Calvin was its central figure; Theodore Beza succeeded him and led the Academy; and John Knox took Calvin's teaching home and founded Presbyterian worship in Scotland. Each is about five meters tall and wears the long preacher's gown still called the Geneva gown.

At their feet are the arms of Bern, Geneva and Scotland: Bern for the alliance between the two cities, Scotland for Knox and the spread of Calvinism there.

To the left of the group stand Admiral de Coligny for France, William the Silent for the Netherlands and Frederick William of Brandenburg, protector of the Huguenot refugees. To the right are Roger Williams for New England, Oliver Cromwell for England and István Bocskai for Hungary. Bas-reliefs between them show key moments of the Reformation in their countries.

Calvin, Farel, Beza and Knox carved in stone, with the arms of Geneva set in the paving before them
Calvin, Farel, Beza and Knox carved in stone, with the arms of Geneva set in the paving before themBarbara Steinemann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Along the wall runs the city's motto, Post Tenebras Lux: after darkness, light. At the far left is carved 1536, the year Geneva officially adopted the Reformation, and at the far right 1602, the year of the Escalade, when the city beat off the Duke of Savoy's attempt to take it back for Catholicism. Separate stones at the two ends of the esplanade honor Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli.

How it was made

Where to put the monument was argued over at length, and in 1908 an international competition was launched for a design in the Bastions. It drew seventy-one entries, and the winning design came from a team of four Swiss architects, among them Alphonse Laverrière and Jean Taillens. The statues were carved by two French sculptors, Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard.

The four reformers of the Wall above the city arms in the paving
The four reformers of the Wall above the city arms in the pavingJoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The wall is built of stone quarried at Pouillenay, in Burgundy, and set against a surviving stretch of the sixteenth-century fortifications that encircled Geneva until the middle of the nineteenth century. The long pool in front of it recalls the moat that once ran along those walls.

The monument has not always been treated gently. In the 1960s it was daubed with red paint at least nine times, the heads of the reformers being the favorite target, and during the restoration of 1985 to 1987 the heads of Calvin and Beza were replaced.

Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox at the center of the Reformation Wall, with Geneva's arms set in the paving
Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox at the center of the Reformation Wall, with Geneva's arms set in the pavingSchweiz41, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

It has also been added to. On Reformation Day in 2002, the names of three earlier reformers, Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, were carved into the stone, together with that of Marie Dentière, a theologian and historian of the Reformation and the first woman to appear on the wall.

The park around it

The Parc des Bastions lies between the city's sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century fortifications. It was laid out from 1720 as a promenade inside the ramparts at a time when Geneva had closed its gates against the plague then raging in Marseille. During the years of French rule it served as stabling for the garrison, and during the famine of 1816 and 1817 it was planted with potatoes.

The long Reformation Wall with its smaller figures and the central group
The long Reformation Wall with its smaller figures and the central groupJoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

In 1817 the botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle created Geneva's first large botanical garden in the middle of the park, with an orangery and greenhouses designed by General Dufour. The garden moved across the Rhône in 1904, where it still is.

Between 1868 and 1872 the city built three buildings in the park for the university; they house the Faculty of Humanities and the Bibliothèque de Genève. The Palais Eynard, built in 1817 on the edge of the park for a Swiss banker, is now the seat of the city's executive council.

Today the park is where the city plays chess on giant boards, where the bandstand of 1882 stands under the trees, and where the Escalade race starts and finishes each December.

How to visit

A carved relief and Latin inscription recalling the 1606 Treaty of Vienna on the Wall
A carved relief and Latin inscription recalling the 1606 Treaty of Vienna on the WallTinux, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

The park is public and the wall is outdoors, so there is nothing to book. Give it half an hour, longer if you want to read the bas-reliefs and the inscriptions. The main gates open onto the Place de Neuve, beside the Grand Théâtre, and a path climbs from the park to the Treille and the old town.

The light on the wall is best when the sun is on it and the pool is still. In winter, when the trees are bare, the whole length of the monument can be seen at once from across the park.

The central figures of the Reformation Wall under a gray sky
The central figures of the Reformation Wall under a gray skyTraumrune, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

It combines well with the old town above, reached up the Treille ramp, and with the Place de Neuve and the Musée Rath at the park gates.

IIIWhere to walk next

Nearby