Geneva

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For other uses, see Geneva (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Swiss town Geneva (pronunciation /Template:IPA/; French: Genève /Template:IPA/, German: Template:Audio /Template:IPA/, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, situated where Lake Geneva (French Lac Léman) flows into the Rhône River. It is the capital of the Canton of Geneva. The population within the city limits is 185,526 (2004) and that of the metropolitan area — which extends into France — is 1,800,000 [1]. Geneva is widely regarded as a global city, mainly due to the presence of numerous international organisations, including the European headquarters of the United Nations.

See Names of European cities in different languages for a list of the name of this city in other languages.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 International organizations
5 Economy
6 Infrastructure
- 6.1 Transportation
- 6.2 Utilities
7 Education
8 Culture
9 Trivia
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 External links

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History

Image:Geneva - Switzerland - 2005 - 01.JPG Geneva was the name of a settlement of the Celtic people of the Allobroges. The name of Genava (or Genua) in Latin appeared for the first time in the writings of Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico, his comments on the Gallic Wars. Its name may be identical in origin to the name of the Ligurian city of Genua (modern Genoa), meaning "knee"; that is, "angle", referring to its geographical position; though more likely is based on the root gen- 'birth' (Genawa is at the birth of the river from the womb of the lake; perhaps the name in full means 'birth-water'). After the Roman conquest it became part of the Provincia Romana (Gallia Narbonensis). In 58 BCE, at Geneva, Caesar hemmed in the Helvetii on their westward march. In the 9th century it became the capital of Burgundy. Though Geneva was contested among Burgundians and Franks and the Holy Roman Emperors, in practice it was ruled by its bishops, until the Reformation, when Geneva became a republic.

Due to the work of reformers such as John Calvin, Geneva was sometimes dubbed the Protestant Rome. In the 16th century Geneva was the center of Calvinism; the St. Pierre Cathedral in what is now called the Old Town was John Calvin's own church. During the time when England was ruled by Queen Mary I, who persecuted Protestants, a number of Protestant scholars fled to Geneva. Among these scholars was William Whittingham who supervised the translation of the Geneva Bible in collaboration with Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and William Cole.

One of the most important events in Geneva's history is l'Escalade (literally: "the scaling of the wall"). For the people of Geneva, l'Escalade is the symbol of their independence. It marked the final attempt in a series of assaults mounted throughout the 16th century by Savoy, which wanted to annex Geneva as its capital north of the Alps. This last assault happened on the night of 11-12 December 1602 and is celebrated yearly in the Old Town with numerous demonstrations and a parade of horses, cannons and armed men in period costumes.

Geneva, or officially the Canton and Republic of Geneva, became a canton of Switzerland in 1815. The first of the Geneva Conventions was signed in 1864, to protect the sick and wounded in war time.

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Geography

Image:Lake-Geneva-west-satellite.jpg Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09' East, at the south-western end of Lake Geneva, where the lake flows into the Rhône River. It is surrounded by two mountain chains, the Alps and the Jura.

The city of Geneva has an area of 15.86 km², while the area of the Canton of Geneva is 282 km², including the two small enclaves of Céligny in Vaud. The part of the Lake that is attached to Geneva has an area of 38 km² and is sometimes referred to as Petit lac (small lake). The Canton has only a 4.5 km border with the rest of Switzerland; out of a total of 107.5 km of borders, the remaining 103 are shared with France, with the Départment de l'Ain to the North and the Département de la Haute-Savoie to the South.

The altitude of Geneva is 373.6 m, and corresponds to the altitude of the largest of the Pierres du Niton, two large rocks emerging from the lake which date from the last ice age. This rock was chosen by General Guillaume Henri Dufour as the reference point for all surveying in Switzerland [2].

The second main river of Geneva is the Arve River which flows into the Rhône River just west of the city centre.

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Demographics

As of 2004, the population of the Commune (city) of Geneva was 185,526, while 438,500 people lived in the Canton of Geneva. In 2000, 1,246,000 people lived in the Geneva urban community, which extends into Vaud Canton and neighboring France.

The population of the Canton is split between 145,200 people originally from Geneva (33.1%), 123,400 Swiss from other cantons (28.2%) and 169,000 foreigners (38.7%), from 180 different countries. Including people holding dual citizenship, 54.4% of people living in Geneva hold a foreign passport. [3] [4]

While Geneva is usually considered as a Protestant city, there are now more Roman Catholics (39.5%) than Protestants (17.4%) living in the Canton. 22% of the inhabitants indicate that they are not part of any religion, the rest being shared between Islam (4.4%), Judaism (1.1%), other religions and people who did not respond. [5] (2000 figures.)

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International organizations

Image:Geneva - Switzerland - 2005 - 02.JPG Geneva is the seat of many international organisations, including the European headquarters of the United Nations and several other international bodies, such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Trade Organization and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Geneva also hosts the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, the International Organization for Standardization, the International Baccalaureate program, the World Council of Churches, the World Wide Web Virtual Library, the World Economic Forum, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International AIDS Society.

Geneva was the seat of the League of Nations between 1919 and the league's dissolution in 1946. It was first housed in the Palais Wilson, and then in the Palais des Nations, which now hosts the United Nations.

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Economy

Geneva's economy is mainly services oriented. The city has an important and old finance sector, which is specialized in private banking (managing assets of about 1 trillion USD) and financing of international trade. It is also an important centre of commodity trade.

Geneva is the international headquarter of companies like Serono, STMicroelectronics, Société Générale de Surveillance, Mediterranean Shipping Company and SITA. Many other multinational companies like Procter & Gamble, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, Reuters, JT International (JTI), Electronic Arts and Sun Microsystems have their European headquarters in the city too.

There is a long tradition of Watchmaking (Rolex, Patek Philippe, Baume et Mercier, Franck Muller). Two major international producers of flavours and fragrances, Firmenich and Givaudan, have their headquarters and main production facilities in Geneva.

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Infrastructure

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Transportation

The city is served by the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. It is connected to both the Swiss railway network SBB-CFF-FFS, and to the French SNCF network, including direct connections to Paris by TGV. Geneva is also connected to the motorway systems of both Switzerland (A1 motorway) and France.

Public transport by bus, trolleybus or tram is provided by Transports Publics Genevois (TPG). In addition to an extensive coverage the city centre, the network covers most of the municipalities of the Canton, with a few lines extending into France. Public transport by boat is provided by the Mouettes Genevoises, who link the two banks of the Lake; however, their use is mostly touristic.

Regional trains operated by SBB-CFF-FFS connect the main station of Cornavin with the airport's train station, and several smaller train stations outside the city center. Trains are currently not used for transportation inside the city; however, work has started on the CEVA (Cornavin - Eaux-Vives - Annemasse) project, first planned in 1884, which will connect the city's main train station with the Canton's public hospital, the Eaux-Vives station and Annemasse, in France. The link between the main station and the classification yard of La Praille already exists; from there, the line will go mostly underground to the Hospital and the Eaux-Vives, where it will link to the existing line to France. [6]

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Utilities

Water, natural gas and electricity are provided to the municipalities of the Canton of Geneva by the state-owned Services Industriels de Genève (or SIG). Most of the drinkable water (80%) is extracted from the lake; the remaining 20% is provided by groundwater originally formed by infiltration from the Arve River. 30% of the Canton's needs in electricity are locally produced, mainly by three hydroelectric dams on the Rhone River (Seujet, Verbois and Chancy-Pougny). In addition, 13% of the electricity produced in the Canton is made from the heat induced by the burning of waste at the waste incineration facility of Les Cheneviers. The remaining needs (70%) are covered by imports from other cantons in Switzerland or other European countries; SIG buys only electricity produced by renewable methods, and in particular does not use electricity produced using nuclear reactors or fossil fuels. Natural gas is available in the City of Geneva, as well as in about two-thirds of the municipalities of the canton, and is imported from western Europe by the Swiss company Gaznat. SIG also provides telecommunication facilities to carriers, service providers and large enterprises. From 2003 to 2005 "Voisin, voisine" a Fibre to the Home pilot project with a Triple play offering was launched to test the end-user market in the Charmilles district.

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Education

Geneva is also home of one of the oldest universities of the world, the University of Geneva, founded in 1559, and one of the most prestigious graduate schools of international relations, the Graduate Institute of International Studies.

It is also home to the oldest international school in the world, the International School of Geneva, founded in 1924 with the League of Nations.

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Culture

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Landmarks and Sights

Image:Grass Clock - Geneva - Switzerland - 2005.jpg Notable sights in Geneva include the Flower Clock, the Art and History Museum, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum and the Palais des Nations, the European headquarters of the United Nations.

The city's most noted landmark is a fountain: the Jet d'Eau (water-jet), situated in Lake Geneva. Its 140-metre-high water column is visible from many parts of the city.

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Media

Image:Jet d'Eau - Geneva - Switzerland - September 2005 - 03.JPG The city's main newspaper is the Tribune de Genève, a daily newspaper founded on 1 February 1879 by James T. Bates, with a readership of about 187,000. Le Courrier, founded in 1868, was originally supported by the Roman Catholic Church, but has been completely independent since 1996. Mainly focused on Geneva, Le Courrier is trying to expand into other cantons in Romandy. Both Le Temps (headquartered in Geneva) and Le Matin are widely read in Geneva, but both journals actually cover the whole of Romandy.

Geneva is covered by the different French language radio networks of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, in particular the Radio Suisse Romande. While these networks cover the whole of Romandy, special programs related to Geneva are sometimes broadcast on some of the local frequencies in the case of special events such as elections. Other local station broadcast from the city, including RadioLac (FM 91.8 MHz), Radio Cité (Christian Radio, FM 92.2 MHz), OneFM (FM 107.0 MHz, also broadcast in Vaud), and World Radio Geneva (FM 88.4 MHz), Switzerland's only English-language radio station.

The main television channel covering Geneva is the Télévision Suisse Romande; while its headquarters are located in Geneva, the programs cover the whole of Romandy and are not specific to Geneva. Léman Bleu is a local TV channel, founded in 1996 and distributed by cable.

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Sport

The main sport team in Geneva is Servette FC, a football club founded in 1890. Servette was the only club to have remained in the top league in Switzerland since its creation in the 1930s; however, in 2005, management problems caused the bankruptcy of the club's parent company, causing the club to be demoted two divisions.

Geneva also has an ice hockey club, Genève-Servette HC, which operates in the Swiss Nationalliga A.

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Trivia

Since 1818, a particular chestnut tree is used as the official "herald of the spring" in Geneva. The sautier (secretary of the Parliament of the Canton of Geneva) observes the tree and notes the day of arrival of the first bud. While this event has no practical impact, the sautier issues a formal press release and the local newspaper will usually mention the news. In 2006, the first bud appeared on 14 March.<ref>Official press release (PDF), 14 March 2006. (in French).</ref>

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