Ferney-Voltaire () is a commune in the Ain department in the

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (; AURA) or ; or ; . is a Regions of France, region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into e ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

of eastern France. It lies between the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

and the Swiss border; it forms part of the metropolitan area of

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. It is named for

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

, who lived there from 1758.

History

Ferney was first noted in 14th-century Burgundian registers as "Fernex" and changed several times until the 19th century to Fernay, Fernaj, Fernai or Fernex before adopting its current name as 'Ferney-Voltaire' in 1791, after the French Revolution which saw a number of city names unchristened and then given more republican names. During Voltaire's residence in Ferney in the second part of the 18th century, the town saw rapid expansion. Today Ferney is a peaceful town with a Saturday market and a large international community, due to the proximity of

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

and the

United Nations Office at Geneva The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG, ) in Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the four major offices of the United Nations where numerous different UN agencies have a joint presence. The main UNOG administrative offices are located inside ...

. Ferney is growing very quickly. It is also home to the ''Lycée International''. Voltaire still presides over Ferney with his statue in the centre of town.

Voltaire

From 1758 to 1778 Ferney was home to French writer and philosopher

, sometimes referred to as "the patriarch of Ferney." His influence on the town was profound. He built the local church and founded cottage industries that produced some of the finest potters and

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

s of modern France. The town was eventually renamed "Ferney-Voltaire" in his honour. In 1758, after having lived in

for less than two years, Voltaire purchased the estate of Ferney in France, near the Swiss border. A prime reason for his leaving Geneva was that theatre was forbidden in that

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

city, so he had decided to become the enlightened "patriarch" of the little village of Ferney, setting up potteries, a watchmaking industry and, of course, theatres, attracting rich people from Geneva to watch his plays. During Voltaire's residence, the population of Ferney increased to more than 1,000. Voltaire lived there for the last 20 years of his life before returning to Paris, where he died in 1778.

Population

Schools

The community has two public preschools/primary schools: École Jean-Calas and École Florian. A nearby intercommunal school, École Intercommunale Jean de la Fontaine in Prévessin-Moëns, also serves the community. the three schools had a combined total of 952 students, with Jean-Calas, Florian, and Jean de la Fontaine respectively having 278, 307, and 367 students.Maternelles et élémentaires
." Ferney-Voltaire. Retrieved on 10 November 2018. Around 1940 a primary school, the École de Ferney-Voltaire, was established. About 1970 it was renamed ''École Florian'', after the French poet and

fabulist Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a partic ...

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (6 March 1755, near Sauve, Gard, France – 13 September 1794, Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, Sceaux, France) was a French poet, novelist and fabulist. Life Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born on 6 March 1755 in t ...

, whose uncle and guardian, the Marquis de Florian, had married a niece of Voltaire, . The school is notable for having had a large number of pupils who were children of physicists at

, which is located in the vicinity. Ferney-Voltaire also has a private preschool/primary school, École Saint-Vincent. Collège Le Joran (junior high school), in Prévessin-Moëns, serves Ferney-Voltaire. Lycée international de Ferney-Voltaire, including a junior high school/middle school (''collège'') and a senior high school/sixth form college (''lycée'') was created in 1961 in Ferney-Voltaire. As of 2016, the Lycée includes a branch campus in Saint-Genis-Pouilly.

Sights

Ferney's main attraction is Voltaire's house (''

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...

''), built 1758–66, now owned and administered by the ''

Centre des monuments nationaux Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

'' (an arm of the French Ministry of Culture). The chateau includes the main building, with a reconstruction of Voltaire's room (moved from its original location by later private owners), a garden with a fine view of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, and a church dedicated, contrary to custom, directly to God. In the church's inscription, "''Deo erexit VOLTAIRE''" ("Erected to God by VOLTAIRE"), Voltaire's name is written in the largest characters. A few dozen metres from the chateau is another impressive house, built in 1900 by ''Monsieur'' Lambert (the sculptor of the statue of Voltaire; his family owned the chateau before it was purchased by the French government). The house, now privately owned, had been used to store provisions and wine for the chateau, and to accommodate the household staff. The village features 18th-century houses and artisans' workshops; a life-size statue of Voltaire; a smaller bust of him, surmounting a fountain; many restaurants, French and foreign; and proximity to the nearby cosmopolitan city of

, Switzerland. Every Saturday, a market is held in the main street of Ferney. The old road at the centre of the village is a remnant of the time when Voltaire resided at the chateau in Ferney-Voltaire. The pedestal of the Voltaire statue, erected in 1890, dedicates that memorial to the town's "benefactor", noting that he built over a hundred houses for the inhabitants, as well as a school and church, gave the town interest-free loans, and fed its inhabitants in time of need. On 31 May 2018, Président

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

officially visited the Château for the re-opening after renovation

Personalities

* Harrikrisna Anenden (born 1947), film director * Hina Aoyama (born 1970), paper-cutting artist and illustrator * Saphia Azzeddine (born 1979), writer, actress and screenwriter * Marie Louise Denis (1712–1790), a niece of Voltaire * Ananda Devi (born 1957), writer * Andy Johnson-Laird (born 1945), computer scientist * Jean-Antoine Lépine (1720–1814), watchmaker * Gaspard Mermillod (1824–1892), bishop, later cardinal * Michel Meylan (1939–2020), politician * Gilles Mirallès (1966–2022), chess player * Antoine Porcel (1937–2014), boxer * David Pujadas (b.1964), journalist and television hos

* Brian Savegar (1932–2007), production designer *

Georges Vianès Georges Jean Gabriel Vianès is a French former civil servant, politician, and corporate officer. He was head of the French National Industrial Property Institute (INPI, standing for ''Institut national de la propriété industrielle'' in French), ...