Geneva 1896: Utopia vs. the real world

For the first time, an amusement park was added to the National Exhibition complex in order to attract more visitors. This wasn't a new idea: At the 1873 World Exposition in Vienna, the Prater fun fair and a replica village of an Austrian rural idyll offered light relief from an exhibition doomed to failure amid a cholera outbreak and a stock market crash.

In Geneva, the attractions were the "Parc de Plaisance" and the "Village Suisse", with a replica mountain, 56 houses and 3523 inhabitants, dressed in traditional costume from around the country. Quite unintentionally, the village came to symbolise the problems preoccupying Switzerland at the time. There were strikes even as the 115 metre long and 18 metre high plaster pastiche of the Bernese Oberland - complete with grazing cows - was being built. Switzerland had four faces: that of the landless population and proletariat, contrasting with the rich, urban class and the major landowners. Workers' associations in Geneva accused the Exhibition's organisers of further widening the divide.

In Geneva, the Federal Department of Home Affairs presented the figures that had not been available in Zurich in 1883. There was particularly lively interest in Alexander von Humboldt's national geographical survey and the maps drawn up by General Henri Dufour.

Sudanese froze all summer

In hosting the National Exhibition, Geneva reached out to the rest of Switzerland consciously for the first time. Patriotism flourished from a French-speaking base, while interest in German-speaking Swiss authors grew, and the idyllic châlet-style architecture became popular throughout the Lake Geneva area.

The National Exhibition was well timed. Switzerland was in the midst of a customs and excise war, and politicians took the opportunity to urge the population to buy Swiss products.

Alongside the Village Suisse, there is no doubt that the Village Noir was the other highlight of the National Exhibition of 1896. A Geneva businessman "imported" 230 Sudanese people, who lived in clay huts for the whole of the summer. This was another idea borrowed from previous World's Fairs.