Opening reception on Friday, July 3, at 6 p.m.

With its majestic swans, Belle Époque boats, and elegant luxury hotels, Lake Geneva is today recognized worldwide as a haven of tranquility and a symbol of peace—a reputation further cemented by the founding of the Red Cross and the League of Nations on its shores. It is therefore between the lake and the mountains that people have been coming for a century to restore peace or attempt to preserve it.

Yet this idyllic setting has a darker history. Like many other border and contact zones, Lake Geneva was the scene of armed conflicts for centuries—conflicts that are often forgotten today, fought between political entities that have long since disappeared. From antiquity to the present day, naval battles, sieges, raids, and pillaging have stained these shores with blood—tragedies whose most recent echoes date back just a few decades: despite appearances, peace is never a certainty…