Historic villas

Villa_barton_300.jpg       Graduate Institute 2011

Villa Barton

Owned by the Swiss Confederation, the Villa Barton is the Institute’s Executive Education centre, after many years’ service as a place of learning for thousands of passionate masters and doctoral students in international relations.

Situated on the shores of Lake Geneva in Parc Barton, an extension of Parc Moynier and the Perle du Lac, the villa was named after Alexandra Barton-Peel, who donated it and the park to the Swiss Confederation when she passed away, under the condition that the sequoia trees in the park would remain preserved. In 1938, the residence was transformed and became the headquarters of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, and later the newly merged Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in 2008.

In 2011, the Swiss Confederation funded the renovation of the villa’s façade and roof.

Villa Moynier

In October 2009, an inauguration ceremony at the Villa Moynier marked the building’s magnificent renovation, conducted thanks to the joint efforts of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the City of Geneva. The villa was granted to the Institute to house the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, created in 2007 in partnership with the University of Geneva. Another joint programme, the Geneva Master in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), is also based at the villa, along with the Swiss Chair of Human Rights.

Villa Moynier is located in Parc Mon Repos, a few hundred metres away from Villa Barton. Built between 1846 and 1847, it was the property of Gustave Moynier, the first President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It later housed the League of Nations in 1926 and served as headquarters for the ICRC between 1933 and 1946.