FERNEY-VOLTAIRE

'Ferney-Voltaire' is a town and commune in the Ain ''département'' of eastern France, between the Jura mountains and the Swiss border. It forms part of the conurbation of Geneva.

Contents

History

Voltaire

Sights

See also

History

Ferney was first noted in 14th-century Burgundian registers as "Fernex." Four centuries later, however, Voltaire changed the "''x''" to a "''y''" due to the excessive number of towns in the region with names ending in "''x''," such as Maconnex, Saconnex, Gex, Versonnex, Ornex.
During Voltaire's reign over Ferney in the second part of the 18th century, the town saw rapid expansion. Today Ferney is struggling to keep its distinct identity as a historic French village, while inevitably also becoming a dormitory suburb of Greater Geneva.

Voltaire

From 1759 to 1778 Ferney was home to French writer and philosopher Voltaire. His influence on the town was profound. He built the local church and founded cottage industries that produced some of the finest potters and watchmakers of modern France. After the French Revolution, the town was renamed "Ferney-Voltaire" in his honor.
In 1759, after having lived in Geneva less than two years, Voltaire had purchased the estate of Ferney in France, near the Swiss border. A prime reason for his leaving Geneva was that theater was forbidden in that Calvinist city, so he had decided to become the enlightened "patriarch" of the little village of Ferney, setting up potteries, a watchmaking industry and, of course, theaters, attracting rich people from Geneva to watch his plays.
During Voltaire's residence, the population of Ferney increased to more than 1,000. Voltaire lived there for the last 20 years of his life before making a triumphal return to Paris, where he died in 1778.

Sights

Ferney's main attraction is Voltaire's house (''château''), built 1758-66, now owned and administered by the ''Centre des Monuments Nationaux'' (an arm of the French Ministry of Culture). As of July 2007, it was closed for restoration, with no date for its reopening to visitors.
The ''château'' includes the main building, with a reconstruction of Voltaire's room (moved from its original location by later private owners), a garden with a fine view of the Alps, and a church dedicated, contrary to custom, directly to God. In the church's inscription, "''Deo erexit VOLTAIRE''" ("Erected to God by VOLTAIRE"), Voltaire's name is written in the largest characters.

A few dozen meters from the ''château'' is another impressive house, built in 1900 by ''Monsieur'' Lambert (the sculptor of the statue of Voltaire; his family owned the ''château'' before it was purchased by the French government). The house, now privately owned, had been used to store provisions and wine for the ''château'', and to accommodate the household staff.
The village features 18th-century houses and artisans' workshops; a life-size statue of Voltaire; a smaller bust of him, surmounting a fountain; many restaurants, French and foreign; and proximity to the nearby cosmopolitan city of Geneva, Switzerland.
Every Saturday, a market is held in the main street of Ferney.
Each year at the beginning of summer, Voltaire's birthday is celebrated in village festivities at which his works are performed in the streets by amateur and professional actors.
The old road at the centre of the village is very beautiful, and a remnant of the time when Voltaire resided at the ''château'' in Ferney-Voltaire.
The pedestal of the Voltaire statue, erected in 1890, dedicates that memorial to the town's "benefactor," noting that he built over a hundred houses for the inhabitants, as well as a school and church, gave the town interest-free loans, and fed its inhabitants in time of need.

See also

★ List of places named after people