Geneva Tourism - Celebrities - Adolphe de Rothschild

Already in ancient times, the site of the Perle-du-Lac was a prized location: richly ornamented thermal baths belonging to a Roman villa were discovered here in 1926.

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Adolphe de Rothschild
1823 - 1900

Rothschild: a legendary name…

Descendant of a powerful dynasty of bankers and financiers, Adolphe de Rothschild was forced to leave Italy after the fall of the monarchy in Naples.

Following a stay in Paris, he came to live in Geneva, a city where numerous private banks were developing due to foreign capital, moneychangers from Lombardy and Huguenot refugees.

Even though the presence of Adolphe de Rothschild in this city was not fortuitous, philanthropy came before banking.

And Geneva?

In 1855, he bought the Pregny domain on which he built a splendid castle. Famous people were to meet in his parlors, including Sissi, the Austrian empress, who lunched there the day before her assassination.

In 1874, Adolphe de Rothschild founded Geneva’s first ophtalmic hospital which was to treat the needy of the area free of charge during one century.

The lovely, wooded property of Pregny was later to house the Barons Maurice, his son Edmond and, today, the latter’s and Nadine de Rothschild’s son, Baron Benjamin. The whole of the Pregny property was bequeathed to the State of Geneva by Maurice de Rothschild.

To see:

• The Rothschild castle with its complex of greenhouses in Pregny-Chambesy (private)
• Rue Rothschild

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