Fondation Martin Bodmer

In the 1920s, Martin Bodmer founded the library. Bodmer chose works from the Bible, Homer, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom he considered as the five foundations of global literature. He valued signatures and first editions beyond everything else. To house the collection, Bodmer erected two neo-baroque villas in Cologny in 1951.

The Bodmer Foundation was founded in 1970, just before Bodmer's death, to make the collection accessible and protect it. Mario Botta renovated the structure in 2003. He built a two-story subterranean structure perforated by light shafts to connect the cellars of the two houses.

The Bodmer Museum exhibits the progression of civilisation since the creation of writing 5,000 years ago. One of humanity's most important innovations, there are instances of many languages and imagery utilized in writing on papyrus, manuscripts, and first edition manuscripts. Martin Bodmer, a well-known Swiss bibliophile and scholar, gathered all of these. Bodmer began his collection as a library, with the intention of displaying it as a museum to highlight an essential aspect of humanity's progress. The museum was designed by Mario Botta and first opened to the public in 2003.

Location: Route Martin-Bodmer 19, Cologny, GE 1223

Website: fondationbodmer.ch/en/