Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Cologny is a Swiss municipality in the canton of Geneva. Cologny is the headquarters of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is generally one of the wealthiest communities in the canton of Geneva and in all of Switzerland. Cologny is an essentially residential municipality, located on a hill overlooking Lake Geneva. It is one of the richest municipalities in the canton of Geneva.

According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Cologny measures 3.67 km2. 78% of this area corresponds to housing or infrastructure areas, 17.60% to agricultural areas, 4.10% to wooded areas and 0.30% to unproductive areas. The town includes the districts of Frontenex, Grange-Canal, La Gradelle and Ruth. It borders on Collonge-Bellerive, Choulex (5 m.), Vandœuvres, Chêne-Bougeries and Geneva.

The community on the left bank of Lake Geneva includes the village of Cologny and the hamlets of La Belotte and Ruth, among others. Since the end of the 17th century, large numbers of spacious country houses of the Geneva upper class have been built in the community, which still shape the townscape today. The proximity to the city and the integrity of the landscape have repeatedly attracted celebrities from all over the world over the past few centuries, including Lord Byron (after whom a viewing platform on the lake is named in the community), Mary Shelley or Connected to John Polidori.

History
The Neolithic (“Lacustres”) pile-dwelling stations of La Belotte are the first traces of inhabitants in Cologny. In the hamlet of La Belotte you will find settlements on the lake shore from the Neolithic Age.

The land of Geneva was conquered in the 2nd century by the Romans. The Roman occupation, which lasted nearly two centuries, allowed the development and prosperity of our region. The Romans built the road which linked Bourg-de-Four to Corsier, passing through Fronto (Frontenex) and Bonvard.

In the Middle Ages, the territory of Cologny was part of the domain of the Counts of Geneva. He then belonged to the Bishop’s Palace, before seeing his fate definitively linked to that of the Republic of Geneva, by the Franchise Treaty of May 23, 1538.

At the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, some Geneva printers used the name Cologny (or Colonia Allobrogum) as a place of publication in order to circumvent the ban on selling their books in France. Since the 17th and 18th centuries, French publishing houses were repeatedly founded in Cologny, which were able to ensure that books that would be subject to censorship in the French state could be published freely.

With the steady development of Geneva, Cologny increasingly staged itself as the preferred residential area of the urban upper class, which began to build spacious country houses on a large scale. The most famous example is the Villa Diodati, in which Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, among others, spent the summer of 1816. Due to the bad weather that year, the guests of the villa enjoyed themselves telling horror stories to each other. In this context, the works Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, as well as The Vampire by John Polidori were created.

In 1754, at the end of the Treaty of Turin, the region of Ruth was attached to the territory of Geneva. This is where the municipality of Cologny found its final limits, subject to two modifications which took place in the course of the 20th century. The most recent, which dates back to 1982, is the result of an exchange of land with the City of Geneva. The other date from 1939 concerns the cession by the City of Geneva of the 15 m2 enclave where the monument commemorating the landing of the Swiss at Port Noir is located.

Until the second half of the 20th century, the community was largely characterized by agriculture, but today it is mainly classified as a large residential area.

Economy
Cologny has a few SMEs, a number of businesses and service companies. The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Martin Bodmer Foundation are headquartered. Only 15% of Colognotes work in the municipality, mainly in the service sector, particularly commerce and restaurants. As of 2010, Cologny had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. As of 2008, there were 4 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. 44 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 1,261 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 130 businesses in this sector. There were 2,052 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% of the workforce.

In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 1,106. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 39 of which 5 or (12.8%) were in manufacturing and 34 (87.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,063. In the tertiary sector; 97 or 9.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 18 or 1.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 87 or 8.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 23 or 2.2% were in the information industry, 24 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 34 or 3.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 98 or 9.2% were in education and 143 or 13.5% were in health care.

In 2000, there were 960 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,676 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 17.7% of the workforce coming into Cologny are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.4% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 19.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.4% used a private car.

Religion
From the 2000 census, 1,588 or 33.8% were Roman Catholic, while 1,025 or 21.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 123 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.62% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 48 individuals (or about 1.02% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 302 individuals (or about 6.43% of the population) who were Jewish, and 197 (or about 4.19% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 16 individuals who were Buddhist, 22 individuals who were Hindu and 6 individuals who belonged to another church. 847 (or about 18.03% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 520 individuals (or about 11.07% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education
In Cologny about 1,048 or (22.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,626 or (34.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 1,626 who completed tertiary schooling, 35.7% were Swiss men, 28.8% were Swiss women, 21.5% were non-Swiss men and 14.0% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2009-2010 school year, there were a total of 883 students in the Cologny school system. The education system in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there were 48 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton’s school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Cologny, there were 74 students in kindergarten or primary school and 9 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 74 lower secondary students who attended school in Cologny. There were 144 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 28 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 359 students attended a private school.

As of 2000, there were 417 students in Cologny who came from another municipality, while 699 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Two schools are located in the town, “L’École du Manoir” and that of “Pré-Picot” (located in the town of Cologny, but managed by the City of Geneva). The Manoir school, located in the center of the village, was built between 1980 and 1983. There are nearly 200 students spread over three floors (three classes upstairs, also three classes on the upper ground floor and one. only class on the lower ground floor). The director of the school is Michèle Dechamboux, she is also the director of the Pré-Picot, Puplinge, Vandoeuvres and Choulex schools.

Heritage sites of national significance
The Bibliotheca Bodmeriana (Bodmer Library), which was given as a donation by Martin Bodmer a month before his death on the 26th of February 1971 and Campagne Diodati are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance

Heritage in Cologny ramp
At the mouth of the river Traînant, which formed the limit of the Geneva franchises in the Middle Ages, the Rampe de Cologny is the old access to the village. This sector is already visible on the painting The Miraculous Fishing painted in 1444 by Conrad Witz.

The Cologny Ramp has several interesting properties:

Traînant (Rampe de Cologny 1 / Quai de Cologny 2), a former winemaker’s house from 1738, added to a mansion in 1756. The facades facing Geneva and the lake were embellished after 1768 to house an inn.

Petit-Cologny (Rampe de Cologny 5), mansion by architect Adolphe Reverdin, 1858.

Hauterive (Ramp Cologny 11-13), vineyard developed by Rilliet family xviii th century. To the two houses perpendicular to the road was added around 1775 a mansion. It underwent major changes before 1822 for Charles Turrettini-Necker.

Champ-de-la-Tour (ch. De Bellefontaine 10-12). Mansion built around 1824 for David-Marc Paccard, banker. It was altered in 1834-1835, in particular for an outbuilding with greenhouse and baths.

Hauterive (ch. De Bellefontaine 9), mansion built in 1853-1854 by the banker David-Marc Paccard for his daughter Palmyre, wife Ador. Gustave Ador lived there. After 1866, the architect Samuel Darier added, against the surrounding wall of the Chemin du Righi, a gardener’s house with shed, stable, orangery.

Bourgeois house (Rampe de Cologny 31) built around 1780 for the surgeon and innkeeper Pierre Lafont.

Heritage in Cologny
The temple (Pl. Pierre-Gauthier 2) dates from 1709 and stands on the site of the old church of Saint-Pierre, cited from 1344. The current building has a rectangular plan with a gable facade with two openwork windows. semicircular. The clock is crowned with a steeple in 1842. Building restored in 1904-1906. On the square, five mosaics by Marguerite Naville and the Gruppo Mosaicisti of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna.

The cure, by Jacques-Louis Brocher (1839-1840).

Le Manoir (pl. Du Manoir 4). This name evokes an old high house from the 1550s (Gauthier family), rebuilt in 1860 for the banker David Marc Paccard. Today communal cultural space.

The Martin Bodmer Foundation (ch. Du Guignard 19-21) founded in 1951 by Martin Bodmer houses a prestigious collection of written documents illustrating humanist and universal culture. It took place in a building designed by architect Mario Botta.

A mansion (route de la Capite 37) was built in 1709 for Marie-Anne Favre-Calandrini. It is characterized by tall rectangular windows, five oils-de-boeuf and a central balcony. The hall has a beautiful staircase. Around 1728, the banker Henri Favre-Boissier completed the building with a wing by developing an elegant French-inspired architecture at the rear, opening onto the garden by a series of arcades.

La Villanelle (route de la Capite 39). Mansion built shortly before 1760 in the center of a wine estate for Jean-Louis Cramer, banker. This rigorous volume, without a pediment, with a courtyard flanked by two symmetrical outbuildings, is quite representative of the sober architecture of the Geneva merchant-bankers.

The Gerdil (route de la Capite 24) has housed the town hall of Cologny since 1944. This mansion was built shortly before 1711 for Gabriel Rilliet-Favre. The entrance gate, in ironwork, is inspired by a project published in 1713 by Pierre Gignoux. The banker Jean-Michel de Tournes-Lullin added in 1780 an additional bay (with monogram on the balustrade of the steps on the garden side). Building restored in 1944 and 1974. The park is accessible to the public.

Heritage towards Ruth and Cologny-Dessous
The Diodati House (ch. De Ruth 9), was originally a luxury pavilion built around 1710-1711 for Gabriel Diodati-Mestrezat. The building then had only one level above a single storey cellar, with terrace and balcony towards the lake. The balustrade with lyre motifs, by the ironworker Pierre Gignoux, is kept in the entrance courtyard. The house was developed around 1780-1783 for Count Jean Diodati-Tronchin, probably receiving a new bay on the lake side, as well as a new floor and a gallery on three sides punctuated by projecting balconies resting on Tuscan columns. The ironwork of the railing, harmonized with the side gates of the entrance, bore the polychrome coat of arms of the count on the central balcony. After unfortunate renovations in 1953, the building underwent a new restoration in 1997, with rearrangement of the gardens.

At the top of the municipal meadow, Byron monument established in 1924 on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the poet.

Le Coteau, house built by Jacques-Louis Brocher in 1854.

In Petit-Heart-breaker (c. Ruth 14-18), winegrower’s house gradually xviii th century manor house with outbuildings, pavilion and gazebo floor. It has a pediment with concave fins outlining the gable on the Geneva side. Crève-Coeur Theater.

Les Ailes (ch. Du Pré-Langard 19), a reinforced concrete villa with a free plan, built in 1931-1932 by the architect Francis Quétant. This residence is, on the shores of the lake, the first expression of the Geneva avant-garde inspired by Le Corbusier.

Ruth (ch. Du Nant d’Argent 17). Great winery established at the xvi th century by the Favre family. Today Institut international Notre-Dame du Lac. Mansion built around 1750 for Jean-Jacques André Boissier. Major changes after 1790 for the agronomist Horace Boissier-Fabri, which notably affected the exterior staircase with a neo-classical double flight. The same character also added in 1824, on the southwest facade, a wing with a gallery with Tuscan columns. Interesting rural building of xviii th century, with barn, stables and dovecote symmetrical. The garden offers various amenities from the 19th century. century, such as basin, greenhouse, and gazebo. In 1926, this property became a boarding school, then a school. Progressive subdivision of the domain.

Heritage from Cologny to Bessinge
Château El Masr (route de la Capite 46). Building built in 1883-1884 for Charles Flood, by architects Henri Bourrit and Jacques Simmler. The high square tower, crenellated, has four levels above a plinth. It is topped, on the corner, with an observatory taking the form of a cylindrical corner turret. The tower is flanked by two asymmetrical main buildings. The highest one houses a chapel lit by large pointed arch bays and bearing the sponsor’s monogram. The carved porch, at the top of a monumental double flight staircase, is of Baroque inspiration. The outbuilding, the lodge and the gate protecting this property are in the same style. This set, inspired by Scottish neo-medieval architecture is built in Meillerie stone masonry, with frames and corner chains in white limestone. At the corner of the property, a romantic neo-medieval tower had already been erected earlier, in 1865, by the architect-entrepreneur Ami Demierre.

In Bessinge (communes of Cologny and Vandoeuvres) (route de la Capite 46), the former Tronchin estate in 1971 became the Cologny Golf-Club. Jacob Tronchin began construction in 1774, of which remain the two square pavilions at the entrance, a long outbuilding and a monopterous temple to the north-east of the park, supported by eight fluted Corinthian columns. The mansion was transformed in 1851-1851 by the architect Jacques-Louis Brocher for Henri Tronchin, who installed his collections there. Renovation in 1971 for the Golf-Club, in the style of the 1950s.

Heritage from Grand Cologny to Frontenex
Le Grand-Cologny (ch. Du Guignard 1-9). This important estate was acquired in 1714 by the banker Jean-Robert Trochin-Calandrini, who brings together two properties whose houses are partly kept as outbuildings. The mansion was built in 1717-1719 according to plans by the prestigious French architect Jean-François Blondel. The building is characterized on the lake side by a front section with a broken pediment, topped by a Mansart-style dome. The estate was then developed by its various wealthy owners, the Gallatin, the Huber, the Necker. The mansion was renovated in 1907-1909 by architects Gustave Brocher and Wilhelm Bettinger, with the addition of an entrance porch and a portico-veranda on Tuscan columns to the south. The facade designed by Blondel was transformed in 1942-1943 for Martin Bodmer by the architects Emile Hornung and Charles van Berchem, who provided a new pediment and numerous interior fittings.

Former Mallet estate (ch. Le-Fort 1). Property acquired in 1706 by Gédéon Mallet-De la rive, with high house, barn and winemaker’s building. The new mansion built in 1706-1707 displays a simple volume, just marked by a pediment on the roof. The outbuildings (housing, barn, stable and press), mainly from the 1770s, now house the vineyard of Vigne Blanche.

Another building in the former Mallet estate (ch. Le-Fort 5) was bought in 1720 by the banker Gédéon Mallet-De la Rive. This one adds a mansion which closes the courtyard to the west. The most ornate facade, on the lake side, has an axial door of the Tuscan order preceded by a staircase. No doubt this house was originally used as a ceremonial gallery.

Former Picot estate (Frontenex 11 plateau), established from 1623 by the Trembley family. The mansion was rebuilt in 1809-1810 by Daniel Picot for his uncle, the historian Jean Picot. Transformations in 1912 by the architects Picot & Bonnard. House acquired in 1957 by the City of Geneva and converted into a crèche in 1992.

Former Saladin estate (Frontenex 1-2 plateau). The property consists from the xvii th century by Saladin family with high house and outbuildings on the terrace. The banker Jean-Daniel Saladin, wanting to rebuild the mansion, appealed in 1715 to the architect Joseph Abeille, but found his project too expensive and finally gave preference to the plans proposed by Jean-Michel Billonin 1730, and further modified for construction in 1731-1733. This building has a simple, almost cubic volume, with slightly arched windows and marked with crossettes on the second floor. Remarkable ironwork gate at the entrance, from 1735. Subsequently, Abraham Auguste Saladin-de Budé, owner from 1782-1822, created in 1789 a miniature pavilion which combines classical and neo-Gothic motifs; in 1814-1821 he added a low wing to the south of the mansion, a wing supported on the garden side by twin Doric columns supporting a low arch. The greenhouses and the orangery were added between 1814 and 1819. The Swiss Confederation acquired the mansion in 1973 and established there the residence of the permanent representative of Switzerland to the United Nations.

Former Calandrini estate (Frontenex Plateau 3-3bis). This mansion was rebuilt around 1754-1755 for the banker François Calandrini.

Cultural space

Le Crève-Coeur Theater
The Le Crève-Cœur theater promotes the promotion of a theatrical heritage. He thus emphasizes his programming on the human, the spiritual, individual trajectories, original and scathing visions of the world.

Music
The town of Cologny organizes various concerts throughout the year. It has forged links with the Popular Conservatory of Music, Dance and Theater of Geneva.

Exhibitions
In a cultural approach, works of art are exhibited in various places in the town and many exhibitions are organized in particular at the Martin Bodmer Foundation and at the Manoir Cultural Center.

Literature and written heritage
Cologny is cited in Belle du Seigneur by Albert Cohen as the place of residence of Ariane, Adrien, Antoinette and Hippolyte Deume: “The letter should be addressed to Madame Adrien Deume, Cologny.” (Solal speaking to Nailcruncher.)

The famous Martin Bodmer Foundation has its headquarters and museum in Cologny. The Pré Byron and the Villa Diodati are two sites which have marked the history of Cologny. Famous the commune of the end of Léman thanks to the historical characters who stayed or lived there.

Pré Byron
The Pré Byron, between open landscape and historical symbolism, offers one of the most remarkable panoramas over the city of Geneva. This place is emblematic for the town, recalling the passage of Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, author of the famous Frankenstein whose genesis of the story took place on a stormy evening in Cologny.

Clinging to the hillside of Cologny, the Pré Byron adjoins Villa Diodati where Lord Byron stayed, in the company of the poet Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin, the latter’s mistress and future wife. It is at Villa Diodati that “Frankenstein” was born under the pen of Mary, following a competition organized by the three friends.

Villa Diodati
Villa Diodati is famous for having been inhabited by Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and others of their friends during the summer of 1816. It was during this stay that the bases of the classic tales were written. horror Frankenstein (where Victor Frankenstein’s house is called Belrive) and The Vampyre.

The house was originally known as Villa Belle Rive, and Byron changed its name to that of the family of its owners. This family was a distant branch of that of the Italian translator Giovanni Diodati, the uncle of Charles Diodati, himself a close friend of John Milton. Although a commemorative plaque indicates a supposed visit by Milton in 1638, the villa was not built until 1710, long after the poet’s death.

Villa Diodati appears in the film Gothic and in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Haunted, where the plot takes place in a modern version of Villa Diodati.

The villa is listed as a Swiss cultural property of national importance.

Natural heritage
The pine processionary, in Switzerland, it is mainly present in the Lake Geneva region, the Rhône valley, in Ticino and in the Grisons valleys to the south of the Alps. Although this processionary prefers scattered and sunny forests, it is also present in parks, private gardens and on high altitude sites.

Oak processionary, the Earth-Nature-Environment Research Institute (inTNE) of the Geneva School of Landscape, Engineering and Architecture (hepia) is pleased to send you a technical sheet on the oak processionary.