Geneva Through the Centuries:

16th Century

The reasons for the conversion are complex. Let’s begin with the religious motives. From the 15th century onward, the urban bourgeoisie increasingly criticized the Roman Church for being slow to correct long-denounced abuses. Political factors reinforced these religious concerns. When German merchants introduced the ideas of the Lutheran Reformation, the people of Geneva listened closely, drawn both to its religious message and to its promise of political liberation. By the time ille gallus (John Calvin) arrived in 1536, Farel, Froment, and Viret had already transformed the city. During this tour, we will explore meditation, power, society, and education up to 1559, the year the Academy was founded.

The Protestant Reformation permanently transformed Geneva. This tour will help you understand its significance and how the city responded to the upheavals it unleashed.

Huguenots, Marian exiles, Lutherans, Waldensians… From the 1530s onward, Geneva saw waves of refugees arriving for religious reasons. This migratory flow, unbroken but varying in intensity, had two major peaks: the first Refuge, after the Reformation and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, and the second, or “great Refuge”, triggered by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many refugees passed through Calvin’s city, and a few thousand settled there.

John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox… Was the Reformation only a story of men? Of course not. Women also played an important role. This walk will help you discover their stories and how they contributed to the transformation of society.