Geneva grewal biography for kids

For the Catholic ecclesiastical history, see Lausanne and Geneva bishopric(s).

The history of Geneva dates from before the Roman occupation in the second century BC.

Now the principal French-speaking city of Switzerland, Geneva was an independent city state from the Middle Ages until the end of the 18th century. John Calvin was the Protestant leader of the city in the 16th century.

Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

Geneva first appears in history as an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Celtic Helvetii tribe, which the Roman Republic took in 121 BC.

In 58 BC, Caesar, Roman governor of Gaul, destroyed the Rhône bridge at Geneva and built a 19-mile earthwork from Lake Geneva to the Jura Mountains in order to block the migration of the Helvetii, who "attempted, sometimes by day, more often by night, to break through, either by joining boats together and making a number of rafts (ratis), or by fording the Rhône where the depth of the