Reformation Monument (Geneva)
The International Reformation Monument ( French Monument international de la Réformation ) in Geneva commemorates the international aura of the Geneva Reformation .
Edification
The foundation stone of the monument was laid on the 400th birthday of John Calvin on July 6, 1909. The project, which emerged victorious from a competition with 70 competitors, came from four Swiss architects ( Alphonse Laverrière , Eugène Monod , Charles Dubois and Jean Taillens ) and the statues were executed by the two French sculptors Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard . The monument was inaugurated on July 7, 1917.
iconography
It consists of an approximately 100 m long, deliberately unadorned sculpture wall in the Parc des Bastions near the main building of the University of Geneva . The stones used for the construction come from the quarries of Pouillenay in Burgundy . Opposite the wall is a staircase made of granite from Mont Blanc , with the names " Luther " and " Zwingli " carved into the side walls .
The four massive statues of Guillaume Farel , Johannes Calvin , Theodor Beza and John Knox stand in the middle on a base, which is inscribed with the Greek abbreviation of the name of Jesus ( ΙΗΣ ) . To the left and right of this are reliefs on important events in the history of the Reformation.
To each relief belongs in turn a smaller statue of a Reformed personality who is more or less closely related to the event depicted on the relief (in each case the theme of the relief):
- Gaspard de Coligny (1519–1572): On April 13, 1598, the French King Henry IV signed the Nantes Edict of Tolerance .
- Wilhelm von Nassau (1533–1584): On July 26, 1581, the assembled States General of the Netherlands proclaimed the declaration of independence for the United Provinces in the Hague .
- Stephan Bocskai (1557–1606): On December 13, 1606, Bocskai handed over the peace treaty of Vienna to the Hungarian parliament , in which Emperor Rudolf II guaranteed the Hungarians freedom of religion.
- Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658): The Lower House and the Upper House of the English Parliament presented the Declaration of Rights to William of Orange and his wife Maria on October 26, 1689 .
- Roger Williams (1603-1683): The Pilgrim Fathers founded in 1620 on board the Mayflower the colony of Plymouth in New England , which was later united with Massachusetts Bay Colony .
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (1620–1688): After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Great Elector accepted Huguenot exiles into his territories ( see also: Edict of Potsdam )
Two other reliefs relate to Farel and Knox:
- at a meeting in a house on the Rue Basses takes Pierre Viret , the future reformer of Vaud , in the presence of Farel and Antoine Froment on 22 February 1534 for the first time in Geneva a reformed baptism
- John Knox preaches to the royal court of Mary Stuart in St Giles Church, Edinburgh
The inscription POST TENEBRAS LUX (“After darkness, light”) stretches across the entire monument - the emblem of the Reformed Geneva and all Reformed people who saw a return to light in the Protestant Reformation.
Additions 2002
On November 3, 2002, on the occasion of the Reformation Festival , the wall was given three other names of forerunners of the Reformation ( Petrus Waldes , John Wyclif and Jan Hus ) as well as the first name of a woman, namely the theologian and Reformation historian Marie Dentière (approx. 1495– 1561) from Tournai .
See also
Individual references and web links
- ↑ Chancellerie de l'Etat de Genève: Le parc des Bastions ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . URL accessed on April 28, 2008.
- ↑ Neil McWilliam: Monuments, martyrdom, and the politics of religion in the French third republic , The Art Bulletin , June 1, 1995. URL accessed April 28, 2008.
- ↑ The Reformation Monument in Geneva
Coordinates: 46 ° 12 '0.8 " N , 6 ° 8' 44.2" E ; CH1903: 500194 / 117354