Reformation Wall

About this audio guide

This guide to the Reformation Wall in Geneva starts with a puzzle: what the fourth reformer, Theodore Beza, is actually holding in his hands, unlike the Bibles cradled by Calvin, Farel and Knox beside him. It traces Calvin's rocky arrival in 1530s Geneva, his expulsion, and the persuasion that brought him back to found the academy that trained pastors sent on to France, Scotland and the Netherlands. You'll hear how the wall itself was raised into the city's old ramparts beneath its motto, after darkness, light. Even now, students argue theology over the chessboards laid out on the lawn in front of it.