Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Switzerland's largest encyclopaedic museum, with 650,000 objects

The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire is the largest fine arts and history museum in Switzerland, opened in 1910 in a purpose-built Beaux-Arts building in the Vieille Ville. Its collection of over 650,000 objects covers archaeology (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval), applied arts (watches, furniture, tapestries, armour), and fine arts (paintings from the 15th to 20th centuries), making it genuinely encyclopaedic.

The archaeological section is one of the strongest in the country: Bronze Age finds from the lake region, Roman glassware, early medieval jewellery. The applied arts collection includes an important horology section — Geneva's watchmaking tradition stretches back to the 16th century, and the museum has clocks and watches from every period. The fine arts galleries are hung salon-style in the upper floors. Admission to the permanent collection is free; temporary exhibitions charge a fee. Closed Mondays.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's most famous work is a small 15th-century altarpiece by Konrad Witz — the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, painted in 1444. It is the earliest surviving painting in which a known, specific landscape was depicted: the shores of Lake Geneva. Witz painted Christ walking on water, but he set the miracle recognisably in Geneva, with the Salève massif visible in the background. You can stand on the lakefront today and line up the same view.