Geneva Geneva Geneva (; ; ; ; ; ) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of the Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. The municipality ("ville de Genève") has a population () of , and the canton (essentially the city and its inner-ring suburbs) has residents. In 2014, the compact "agglomération du Grand Genève" had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France. Within Swiss territory, the commuter area named ""Métropole lémanique"" contains
History of Geneva were often tensions between Calvin and the city's civil authorities. Calvin also supported the admission into Geneva of Protestant refugees, which some circles strongly opposed. Though the city proper remained a Protestant stronghold, a large part of the historic diocese returned to Catholicism in the early seventeenth century under St. Francis de Sales. Geneva has played a historical role in the spread of Protestantism. In addition to becoming a Protestant state, Geneva in the 16th century also became a kind of welfare state, as a general state hospital was established in 1535 by the wealthy Protestant Claude Salomon. A centralized