International Monument of the Reformation

The international Monument of the Reformation , generally known under the name of Wall of the Reformers , is located at Geneva (Suisse). Raised in current the Park the Bastions and length of a hundred meters, he is leant with part of the old walls built at the 16th century and which surround the city until the medium of the 19th century. The monument is inaugurated in 1909 for the 400e birthday of the birth of Jean Calvin and the 350e birthday of the foundation of the Academy of Geneva become today the Université of Geneva.

The monument is composed of a rampart of stone engraved and decorated Bas-relief S, in front of which are drawn up the Statue S of the pioneers or guards of the Réforme. The unit is protected by a part from water pointing out the ditch from the old fortifications.

Personalities represented

In the center of the wall, high, 5 meters the statues of four outstanding figures of the reforming movement are joined together: Guillaume Farel (1489 - 1565), one of the instigators of the Reform in Geneva, Jean Calvin (1509 - 1564), the central figure of the movement, Theodore de Bèze (1513 - 1605), which is vice-chancellor of the Academy of Geneva, and John Knox (1513 - 1572), founder of the Culte presbytérien in Scotland, all four vêtus of the dress of Geneva and holding the Petite bible of the Christian people with the hand.

In the wall is engraved the currency of Geneva: Post Tenebras Lux (After darkness, the light).

On both sides of the central figures the statues and low-reliefs are representing the great Protestant figures of the various countries calvinists and the crucial factors in the development of the movement:

On the left of the central group is the admiral de Coligny for France, Guillaume Silent the for the Netherlands and Frederic-Guillaume de Brandebourg, guard of the refugees Huguenot S, for the Germany.
On the right of the central group is Roger Williams for the New England, Olivier Cromwell for the Great Britain and István Bocskay for the Hungary.
At the respective ends of the esplanade facing the monument, two steles point out the memory of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli.

History

It is following a rough debate on the site where it was advisable to raise the monument that in 1908 is launched an international contest for its installation in the walk of the Bastions which shelters a Botanical garden since 1817. The contest arouses a very broad interest and the returned projects resort to a large variety of solutions.

The project, preceded at the end of a contest among 71 other proposals, is the work of 4 Swiss architects (of which Alphonse Laverrière and Jean Taillens). The statues are carried out by two sculptors French: Paul Landowski and Maurice Reymond.

The November 3rd 2002, at the time of the festival of the Reformation, is engraved in the stone of the wall the name of three other precursors of the Reform: Pierre Valdo, John Wyclif, Jean Hus and that of the first woman to be appeared in it, under théologienne and historian of the Reform, Marie Dentière, originating in Turned.

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