26 Best Sights in Rive Gauche (Left Bank), Geneva

The museum that sources this humbling exhibition of original texts—from cuneiform tablets, papyrus scrolls, and parchment to a dizzying array of first editions—maps the history of human thought. Dramatic displays of bas-reliefs and dimly lighted Egyptian books of the dead give way to Homer's Iliad; handwritten Gospels according to Matthew and John; exquisite copies of the Koran; a perfectly preserved Gutenberg Bible; Shakespeare (the complete works, published in 1623); an autographed score by Mozart; Oliver Twist; the Communist Manifesto; and Alice in Wonderland. A comprehensive printed guide is available in English. Energetic sightseers can get here on foot; otherwise, take the A bus from Rond-point de Rive and get off at Cologny-Temple. The ride takes 12 minutes.

The city's landmark fountain, which shoots 132 gallons of water—the equivalent of four standard bathtubs—459 feet into the air every second at 125 mph, can be seen throughout downtown. The parks and promenades around the lake offer the opportunity to see it from almost 360 degrees, and a wooden walkway on the pier at dock Gustave-Ador makes it easier to view up close.

Conceived on a grand scale and erected between 1909 and 1917, this solemn 325- by 30-foot swath of granite pays homage to the 16th-century religious movement spearheaded by Guillaume Farel, Jean Calvin, Théodore de Bèze, and John Knox. Smaller statues of major Protestant figures, bas-reliefs, and inscriptions connected with the Reformation flank the lifelike giants as they hover over Bern, Geneva, and Edinburgh's coats of arms. Roger Williams is surrounded by Pilgrims praying on the deck of the Mayflower, and near Oliver Cromwell is the 1689 presentation of the Bill of Rights to King William and Queen Mary by the English Houses of Parliament. The Reformation's—and Geneva's—motto, Post Tenebras Lux (After Darkness, Light), spreads over the whole. The location is just below the Vieille Ville.

Archaeologists found multiple layers of history underneath the Cathédrale St-Pierre when its foundations began to falter in 1976. Excavations have so far yielded remnants of two 4th-century Christian sanctuaries, mosaic floors from the late Roman Empire, three early churches, and an 11th-century crypt. The first Romanesque cathedral on the site was built in 1000. Audio guides in English and careful lighting help navigate the (reinforced) underground maze that remains.

Designed as a granary on the site of a Roman marketplace and converted to a gunpowder depot after l'Escalade, this municipal storage space has sustained Geneva through the ages. The current 1636 structure stocks history: murals on the inner wall and frescoes along the outer rim of the arcade tell the town's story from Julius Caesar to 1848; records in the State Archives date back to 1387.

Reformed services in English, Italian, and Dutch made this simple Gothic structure, built in the 15th century on the site of two prior churches, a potent international gathering place for 16th-century Protestant refugees. The Scots reformer John Knox preached here from 1556 to 1559 while he translated the Bible into English, initiating the Presbyterian Church; Calvin and his successors used the space to teach theology. Today the auditoire hosts the Church of Scotland, the Dutch Reformed Community, and the Waldensian Church of Italy.

A stylistic hybrid scarred by centuries of religious upheaval and political turmoil, this imposing cathedral somehow survived the ages with its dignity intact. The massive neoclassical facade was an 18th-century addition meant to shore up 12th-century Romanesque-Gothic walls; stained-glass windows, the Duke of Rohan's tomb, a few choir stalls, and the 15th-century Chapel of the Maccabees hint at lavish alternatives to Calvin's plain chair. Fifteenth-century bells and bird's-eye city views reward those who climb the 157 steps to the top of the North Tower.

Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Scheibitz, and Shirana Shahbazi are some of the pioneering Swiss and international artists who have presented work here since 1974. The center's annual exhibits include multimedia installations and performances that highlight emerging artists who examine the practice of art in a cultural context. Guided visits in English are available upon request.

Originally part of a 15th-century hospital complex built outside the city to isolate victims of the plague, these verdant seven acres hold the mortal remains of Jean Calvin, Simon Rath, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, William Favre, Jorge Luis Borges, and Sergio Vieira de Mello (the United Nations special representative killed in Iraq in 2003), as well as many of the people whose names grace street signs all over town.

This pristine 15th-century sanctuary served as a Protestant temple, a butcher's warehouse, a foundry, and a government meeting hall before Napoléon's troops returned it to Catholicism in 1803. The second chapel on the left maps a structural lineage that began in AD 400, and the steeple dates from the 14th century. Today's whitewashed walls, strategic lighting, and stained glass frame weekly classical music concerts in summer. Attending a concert or a service (the latter occurs at 10 on Sunday) is usually your only chance to see the inside.

Alfred Baur's lovingly preserved collection of Far Eastern art packs more than 10 centuries of Chinese ceramics and jade, Japanese smoking paraphernalia, prints, lacquerware, and sword fittings—some 9,000 objects in all—into a tranquil 19th-century town house on the edge of the Vieille Ville. Thematic temporary exhibits occupy the basement. English texts introduce each room.

The city first planted this gigantic, and accurate, floral timepiece in 1955 to highlight Geneva's seminal role in the Swiss watchmaking industry. Some 6,500 plants are required four times a year to cover its 16-foot-wide surface.

The town hall is the seat of politics in the canton and has a rich history. Representatives from 14 of 16 countries present signed the first Geneva Convention in the ground-floor Alabama Hall on August 22, 1864, enforcing the action of the International Red Cross, which had been created in Geneva the year before. The League of Nations also convened its first assembly here on November 15, 1920. The canton's executive and legislative bodies meet here; until 1958 government functionaries lived here. But the history of this elegant vaulted compound begins in 1455, when the city built a large fortified tower, the Tour Baudet, to house the State Council Chamber. Its ramp, an architectural anomaly added during the Reformation, was used by the councilors to reach the third-floor meeting hall without dismounting from their donkeys, a practice that gave name to the tower: baudet means donkey in French.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva and the son of a Genevois watchmaker, is known to history as a liberal philosopher in part because the conservative governments in Geneva and Paris so thoroughly rejected his views. His statue on this former city bastion, erected reluctantly in 1835 (57 years after his death), was surrounded by trees and his face deliberately hidden from view until the 1862 construction of the Pont du Mont-Blanc gave Rousseau the last laugh. In 2012, for Rousseau's 300th birthday, the statue was turned so visitors can once again see his face.

Old photos of Geneva show scores of black masts and graceful, cream-color sails crowding the lake. Now La Neptune is the only authentic traditional barge to still navigate Lake Geneva. Built in 1904, it hauled stone and sand between far-flung construction sites until 1968. Today, it can be hired out for day sails.

Vaulted cellars and ground-floor kitchens display medieval graffiti, 15th-century tiles, and a guillotine in Geneva's oldest house, now a museum focused on life in the city from 1334 to the 1800s. Seventeenth-century ironwork, doors, and other fragments of long-demolished houses fill the first floor; a bourgeois home complete with 18th-century wallpaper is re-created on the second. The enormous Magnin Model (which depicts Geneva as it looked before its elaborate defense walls came down in 1850) is housed in the attic. Audio guides are available in English, French, German, and Russian.

Concrete floors and fluorescent lighting set the tone for this gritty collection of stark, mind-stretching, post-1960 art. Better known as MAMCO, the museum shares its former factory compound with separate centers for contemporary art and photography. The industrial surroundings help juxtapose aesthetic approaches; temporary exhibits add current artists to the mix.

Josef Mueller began acquiring fine primitive era art from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas in 1907. Today his family's vast, inspired collection of sculpture, masks, shields, textiles, and ornaments spans six continents and seven millennia. A small selection is on view at any given time, displayed like jewels in warm, spotlighted vaults of scrubbed stone.

The Museum of Art and History, one of the largest museums in Switzerland, brings together archaeological, applied art and fine art collections. The 15th-century Miracle of the Fishes, in which Jesus paces the waters of Lac Léman, keeps things focused locally at this museum built in 1910. The collection includes Switzerland's largest concentration of Egyptian art, Escalade-era weapons, Alpine landscapes from both ends of the 19th century, and substantial modern art. There is often a fee for temporary exhibits.

Large, evocative wildlife dioramas complete with sound effects cover most major animal types at this spacious museum. Large quantities of fossils, gigantic crystals, precious stones, and a case full of polyhedrons ensure that the place is always swarming with local school groups. Swiss geology, the history of the solar system, and thematic temporary exhibits round out the collection; most labels are in French. The museum is a short walk away on the outskirts of the Vieille Ville.

Switzerland's original fine arts museum, inaugurated in 1826 and named for its late benefactor, Simon Rath, housed Geneva's growing collections of art and archaeology until they overflowed to the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in 1910. Now the Rath hosts two major temporary exhibitions each year; they range in focus from archaeology to contemporary art.

The remnants of a 1st-century Roman villa crown the hillside in this gracious, sun-dappled park, once the private grounds of an 18th-century villa overlooking the lake. William Favre's bequest of his family's domain to the city in 1917 stipulated that the park be made available to the public during the day and closed at night. It is still the only green space in Geneva to be locked when the sun goes down. The Orangerie and the Théâtre de Verdure stage performances and open-air concerts through the summer months.

In this breathtaking private collection you'll discover delicate gold watch cases, complicated watch innards, lifelike portrait miniatures, and softly lighted enameled fans, pens, pocketknives, snuffboxes, telescopes, and vanity pistols that shoot singing birds. Most of the objects displayed in this former watchmaking workshop are hundreds of years old; many were created in Geneva by Patek Philippe, one of the city's most venerable watchmaking companies. Meticulously restored workbenches, audiovisual displays, classical music, and a horological library complete the picture; the two-hour guided tour (in English at 2:30 on Saturday) puts it all in context. All signage is in English.

Aristocratic town houses now overlook Geneva's opera house, the Musée Rath, the Conservatoire de Musique, and the gilded wrought-iron entrance to the Parc des Bastions, but until 1850 this wide-open space was the city's heavily fortified main southern gate. The equestrian statue at the center of the square honors Guillaume-Henri Dufour, the first general of Switzerland's federal army and the first person to map the country. The large bust of Henry Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross, marks the spot where public executions once took place.

Ancient roads met in this layered Vieille Ville square before heading south to Annecy and Lyon, east to Italy and the Chablais, north to the Rues Basses, and west through the center of town to the bridge. Once a Celtic cattle market, later flooded with refugees, it's still the quintessential Genevois crossroads where shoppers, lawyers, workers, and students all meet for drinks around an 18th-century fountain.

On the border of the Rive Gauche's Plainpalais and Centre Ville neighborhoods is the lone surviving fragment of a 13th-century castle built by Bishop Aymon de Grandson to protect Geneva from attack via the bridge. The castle was demolished in 1677; this carefully preserved lookout tower is not open to the public.