Ladders in the Longest Night - Rue de la Corraterie
On the night of 11 to 12 December 1602, the longest of the year by Geneva's old calendar, about 300 Savoyard mercenaries climbed the city wall that stood right here on three ladders, until a sentry's shot, a pot of soup and a falling portcullis turned the surprise attack into a rout that left 18 Genevans and some 54 attackers dead.
À propos de ce lieu
The Rue de la Corraterie looks every inch the orderly banking street: a gentle slope from Place Neuve down toward the Rhône, trams, and a neoclassical row whose facade plan by the architect Samuel Vaucher was approved by Guillaume Henri Dufour in 1827. Yet it follows the line of Geneva's old city wall, and on the night of 11 to 12 December 1602, the longest night of the year by the calendar Geneva then used, about 300 elite mercenaries of Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy climbed it here on three collapsible ladders, halfway between the Oye bastion and the unguarded Monnaie gate, while more than 2,000 troops waited outside. A sentry's shot raised the alarm, the Clémence bell of St Pierre rang at 2:30, and townspeople in their nightshirts fought back; legend credits the Mère Royaume with emptying a pot of hot soup on an attacker from her window above the Monnaie gate. Eighteen Genevans and some 54 attackers died, and the 13 prisoners were hanged the next day. The victory, sealed by the Treaty of Saint Julien in July 1603, is still Geneva's biggest festival, and a marble plaque of 1902 and the 1903 building at number 7, raised on the site of the old Tower of the Escalade, keep the memory alive on this street.
À retenir
- 3 ladders — Three collapsible ladders carried about 300 elite Savoyard mercenaries over the seven metre city wall here, while more than 2,000 troops waited outside.
- 18 Genevans killed — Eighteen defenders died in the Escalade; five of them fell on the Corraterie and three more at the Monnaie gate at its northern end.
- 67 heads on pikes — The heads of the fallen attackers and of the 13 hanged prisoners were displayed on the ramparts until the Treaty of Saint Julien in July 1603.