Ed. note: Barbara Ender, an occasional contributor to GenevaLunch, is a Lausanne-based travel editor.
Walking through history
By Barbara Ender
Zadar, Croatia (©2011, Barbara Ender)
“Would you like a free hug?”
An offer I couldn’t refuse. I turned to see a group of cheerful girls in orange T-shirts, opened my arms and embraced all the youth and joie de vivre of Zadar. A memorable, tactile introduction to one of Croatia’s most delightful cities, golden, vibrant, resilient, young at heart.
Young at heart—but old in its bones. The city is built on a peninsula, just 1km long and 300m wide. Founded by Illyrians 3,000 years ago, it has been ruled and planned by Romans, Byzantines, Franks and Venetians, attacked by Ottomans, ravaged by Huns, Ostrogoths, Crusaders and bubonic plague, bombed by the Allies in the second world war and shelled by Krajina rebels and the Yugoslav People’s Army from 1991 to 1995.
Rebuilt, restored, snug within its massive Venetian ramparts, it is a crazy quilt of architectural styles, and a miracle of survival.
Zadar, Croatia, side street (©2011, Barbara Ender)
Most visitors arrive on cruise ships or ferries and enter the city from the harbour at the western end, but I was staying overnight in a big hotel outside the walls on the mainland.
As the afternoon began to close, I walked past the tiny Fosa marina, beneath the sculpted Venetian lion on the Land Gate, through the walls into the long and narrow main street that follows the course of the ancient Roman cardo towards its crossing with the decumanus at the Forum.
On each side, enticing little side streets beckon, some dark and mysterious, others gleaming red and ochre in the dwindling light, others trying to lure me into ancient peeling courtyards festooned with laundry. High heels clatter along the limestone pavement, giggling students pass by, two to a bicycle, but I walk straight on, intent on my goal.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, accompanied by Gen. Omar N. Bradley, and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., inspect art treasures stolen by Germans and hidden in salt mine in Germany (source: US National Archives)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has taken more measures since June 2009 to finding the owners and track the history of ownership—the provenance—of art stolen during the Nazi era, but more needs to be done, a report issued 18 January for the Swiss Federal Council shows.
“Museums need to intensify provenance research,” the report notes, and public and private museums both need to do more to raise public awareness of provenance research and the issues involved.
“Access to the results of provenance research as well as to relevant archives has to be simplified,” the report concludes.
Switzerland, which has a significant art market, stepped up its efforts in 2009, after it participated in the international Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague and adopted, with 46 other countries, the “Terezin Declaration”.
Geneva, Switzerland - heat wave (photo, Peter Brodbeck on flickr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The city of Geneva is now offering a “Geneva pass” with several special visitor offers that should save tourists money and make it easier to select some of the city’s top attractions.
The city’s tourism office is making available for one, two or three days (CHF25, 35 or 45) passes with a good variety of options on offer, some free, some discounted, and with some gifts.
Sightseeing tours by tram, boat or guided walks are part of the offer, with free visits to a number of museums.
Enea's new Tree Museum, Zurich (click on images to view larger)
Tree Museum, photo Martin Ruetschi
Update 4 June / Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Zurich will soon add a new museum to its already eclectic and rich collection of these. One of the world’s top landscape architects, Enzo Enea, will open a tree museum in Raperswil-Jona, canton St Gallen, 14 June. The trees are a collection from those he has moved or adopted over the years while creating new gardens for people, and the youngest is 50 years old. About 120 trees will be on display at any given time. The tree museum is part of a 7.5 hectare park whose magnificent blooms will be on display for the public starting 14 June.
Zurich museums include, besides the famed Kunsthaus art museum, the Migros art museum with a notable contemporary art collection, the Rietberg collections/exhibits which host top international shows such as the just-closed “Mexico: Teotihuacan, The Mysterious City of Pyramid”, and which is worth visiting even just to see the grounds of this magnificent home which played host to composer Richard Wagner for nine years. It was here he offered his new composition “Tristan and Isolde”, written for Mathilde Wesendonck, his hostess, with whom he had an intimate relationship.
Links to other sites: Enea tree museum (Baummuseum), Luminaire on Enea
- Opening hours for the tree museum, Monday-Friday 09:00-18:30 and Saturday 10:00-17:00
- Address: Buechstrasse 12 / 8645 Rapperswil-Jona
- Telephone: +41 55 225 5555
Title: Angels, music and baroque instruments
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Gli Angeli Geneve and the Art and History Musem hold a weekend of lectures, exhibits and more.
Start Date: 2010-06-05
End Date: 2010-06-06
The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific in California, USA, is about to open its beautiful new otter home, the result of a $1 million gift from BP. But the bosses from BP will probably not be on hand for the opening, says the aquarium’s president – who invited them despite the Gulf of Mexico oil leak for which BP is being held responsible. The inauguration of the aquarium highlights a growing concern for non-profits, reports the Los Angeles Times, with corporate America’s donations sometimes turning into public relations albatrosses. The article looks at the impact on universities, museums and public television.
Title: Free museum entry, Geneva and Lausanne
Location: Geneva and Lausanne
Link out: Click here
Description: Free entrance to all city museums in Lausanne the first Saturday of each month, and in Geneva, the first Sunday of the month.
Start Date: 2010-04-03
End Date: 2010-04-04
Title: Exhibit: Tissot & motor sport
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: This exhibit in the City’s centre promises a high dose of adrenaline and “white knuckles.”
Start Date: 2010-03-01
End Date: 2010-03-29
The state of the AI en route to the mountains, glorious Jura snow
Weekend walk and circus special in Nyon, Swiss skiers and boarders
Jura (Crozet) Wednesday 20 January (image: S Curran)
Crozet with blue skies - Geneva in the fog below
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - It’s January, so expect a mix of Spring moments and sudden snow showers on the lakefront but pure winter goodness in the mountains this weekend.
Wednesday it snowed in Nyon and along the lakefront, throughout the week the Jura has thrived, as large amounts of the white stuff came down, and the Alps have had sunshine again after gloomy spells.
The road out of town
If you’re heading out of the Geneva area to the Swiss Alps be aware that this is the first weekend when the new A1 autoroute signaling system is open, adding a third lane in each direction between Morges and Lausanne. The system is very easy to follow and there have been no accidents since it was put in place Monday, but you do need to drive attentively, with other drivers sometimes surprised to find the system there. It operates only in the afternoons, until Monday 25 January when it goes into use full-time.
Weather forecast
Three men were arrested near Kirkuk, Iraq trying to sell Sumerian archeological treasures, some dating from 4000-2000 BC. The local army commander said the men were asking for $160,000 for some items, and that the money was being used to finance “terrorist actions.” He said he did not know where the relics came from.
Iraq’s Sumerian culture is known as the “cradle of civilization” because much evidence points to sophisticated urban settlements at a very early date. Many museums in Baghdad, Iraq were looted shortly after the US invasion in 2003. AFP, BBC
Title: Night of the museums in Lausanne
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: For the 9th consecutive year Lausanne’s museums will open non-stop from 14:00 to 02:00.
Date: 26 Sep 2009
The Swiss know about this and anyone spending six months or more in the country should as well: over a million people hold the Swiss Museums Passport and they make more than half a million visits to the country’s museums with it. The cost is CHF144 a year for an adult or CHF177 for an adult-plus pass that allows you to take up to five children. A family pass is CHF225. The passes are good for 440 museums and as of 1 January 2009 you can also get into the hugely popular (and excellent) Swiss Transport Museum for half-price. Do check the list of museums, as a couple that have very large, major exhibits are not covered. July 2009 example: the Lake Maggiore tourism office features the passport.
Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) – Hard to believe on a damp, foggy, drizzly Friday afternoon, but the weather people at MeteoSwiss promise sunshine and warmer temperatures starting Saturday morning. By Sunday temperatures should rise to 24-25C in most of the region.
Lake Geneva region – outdoors
It should be perfect weather for learning all about Geneva’s wine: the annual Open Day pulls in large crowds every year, so join the fun.
Title: Leman museum open doors day
Location: Nyon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A day for kids and grown up alike to discover the museum.
Date: 27 Jun 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Caesar Menz, who handed in his resignation 7 May when a highly critical audit of Geneva’s museums was made public, has told Le Temps in a lengthy interview that the report amounts to a public lynching. He was scathing in his assessment of the auditors, a French company, saying that they appeared to be treating the Swiss museums like French museums, with little understanding of the local context.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Genève, Fre) – An audit on the state of the Museums of Art and History is peppered with phrases like old-fashioned, feudal management, inconsistent display, reports the Tribune. The report was presented to city councilors and museum employees Thursday 7 May. Its devastating conclusions prompted the immediate resignation of the Caesar Menz, the director.
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Geneva has begun looking for a new director for its museums, with current director Cäsar Menz two years away from retirement. The new director could begin immediately, with Menz ensuring a good transition, reports Le Temps.
Title: Free museum day, Lausanne and Geneva
Location: Geneva and Lausanne
Description: Access to all temporary and permanent exhibits, in the city and canton museums are free in Lausanne and Geneva. In Lausanne on Saturday and in Geneva on Sunday.
Start Date: 06 Dec 2008
End Date: 07 Dec 2008
Title: From Time to Time
Location: Geneva, Musée d’Histoire des Sciences and Lausanne, Espace des Inventions
Description: Hands-on exhibit about time and how it passes, ages 7 to 100.
Start Date: 02 Oct 2008
End Date: 31 May 2009
