- Address: Rue Charles-Galland 2, 1204 Geneva
- Phone: +41 (0) 22 418 26 00
- Website: institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fr/mah/
- Working hours: 11.00 - 18.00, Monday - closed
- The cost of visiting: free of charge, temporary exhibitions - 5-20 francs
Geneva is one of the largest cities in Switzerland , which is world famous not only thanks to the headquarters of the UN and the Red Cross. There are many interesting sights and museums , one of which is the Geneva Museum of Art and History.
More about the museum
As the name suggests, it is located in the Swiss city of Geneva and is one of the most visited in the whole country. Its area is huge - as much as 7,000 square meters. m.!
Initially, the museum was conceived as encyclopedic in order to preserve the richness of fine and applied arts and artefact artifacts within its walls. Nowadays there are more than 650 thousand different exhibits here, only the canvases in the halls and storages are about seven thousand, covering the whole 500 years. In the last 10-20 years, the museum's fund is actively replenished from private collections.
The museum is located in a beautiful majestic building with columns in the style of classicism, the roof of which is decorated with some sculptures.
A bit of history
Since 1798, the exposition from the Louvre and Versailles arrived in Geneva, since the storehouses of the French palaces were overcrowded. In those days, Geneva was temporarily a French territory. Initially, all the accumulated values of the Society of Arts and some private collections were exhibited in a small museum on Novaya Ploschad. But after a quarter of a century the city authorities were puzzled by the construction of a huge complex that would accommodate all the collections of paintings and sculptures, finds of archeology, weapons and decorative objects.
Construction under the direction of architect Mark Kamoletti went for seven years, and in 1910 the Museum of Art and History opened its doors to visitors.
What is interesting about the museum?
Since the foundation of the museum and until the advent of the nineteenth century, museum expositions were small and in places even poor, especially there were few Impressionist paintings. The era of progress brought to Geneva many gifts and acquisitions, including such works as:
- "Summer" by Auguste Renoir;
- "Farmyard at Montfoucault" by Camille Pissarro;
- version of the "Bathers" Paul Sezan;
- Claude Monet's four beautiful paintings - "Effects of Snow", "Road st Argenteuil", "The Seine Downstream from Vétheuil" and "Peonies";
- "The Dead Man" by Marc Chagall;
- "Walking" by Alexander Arkhipenko;
- "Bathers in Garoupe" by Pablo Picasso;
- "The Head of Eloquence" by Antoine Bourdelle;
- "Woman in black" Amodeo Modigliani and other paintings.
It can be said that the Geneva Museum of Art and History has become a collective image of several museums in the country and also includes a cabinet of graphic arts, a library of art and archeology and collections of the Rath Museum , Tavel Houses and the Museum of Ceramics and Glass , which represents a rich heritage of clay products from different eras .
The Hall of Applied Arts offers you to get acquainted with musical instruments, household objects and textile production, which are more than a hundred years old, there are collections of ancient weapons and armor. In addition, in the hall there are real stained-glass windows from St. Peter's Cathedral , and they were made by famous craftsmen by hand.
How to get to and visit the Geneva Museum of Art and History?
The museum is open daily, except Monday, from 11:00 to 18:00. Permanent exhibitions are free for everyone, but for children under 18 years of age, admission is free, and an adult ticket costs CHF 5-20 (Swiss francs). The cost directly depends on the size and scale of the brought collection.
It's easy to get to the museum. The right stop is Saint-Antoine. Tram No. 12 and city buses No. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 36 go to it. If you are taking a taxi or rented car, use the coordinates of the museum.
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