Fodor's Expert Review Palais Wilson
Rive Droite (Right Bank)
Government Building
The largest of Geneva's grandes dames, this former hotel leaped to international prominence on April 28, 1919, when the peace negotiators in Paris chose Geneva to host the newborn League of Nations. International civil servants began work here in November 1920, and the building was renamed in honor of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1924. By 1936 the faltering League had run out of space and moved to the custom-built Palais des Nations. Ten years later it was dismantled. The Palais Wilson was gutted by fire in 1987, meticulously restored in 1998, and now houses the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is not open to the public.
