Place de la Riponne & Palais de Rumine
A vast open square that suddenly breaks the grip of the medieval lanes, dominated by the Palais de Rumine, a Florentine Renaissance palace that looks transplanted from Italy to the shore of Lake Geneva. Behind its arches sit five museums and the memory of a treaty that redrew a nation's borders.
À propos de ce lieu
The Place de la Riponne is the largest open square in central Lausanne, a wide expanse of paving that feels like a sudden release after the tight, sloping lanes of the upper town. Its name comes from an old word for cleared or reclaimed land, a hint that this ground was once a low, marshy hollow that had to be drained before it could be built upon. Today it is a stage for markets, book stalls, and open air events, but every eye is drawn to the monumental building on its eastern flank. The Palais de Rumine rises in warm stone with rounded arches, loggias, and slender towers, its Florentine Renaissance design deliberately evoking the palaces of Italy and echoing the Villa Medici in Rome. Built between 1892 and 1904 from a fortune left to the city by the young Russian aristocrat Gabriel de Rumine, it long served as the home of the university before being reborn as a cluster of cantonal museums and library, and it was here, in 1923, that the Treaty of Lausanne was signed.
À retenir
- 1500000 francs — Bequeathed by Gabriel de Rumine in 1871 to build a palace for the public good
- 1923 year — The Treaty of Lausanne was signed inside the Palais on 24 July
- 5 museums — Cantonal collections are housed behind the palace facade today
📍 Place de la Riponne 6, 1014, Lausanne