Les Acacias is a district shared between the cities 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 ...

and

Carouge Carouge () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History Carouge is first mentioned in the Early Middle Ages as ''Quadruvium'' and ''Quatruvio''. In 1248 it was mentioned as ''Carrogium'' while i ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, located on the left bank of the Arve.

Geography

In the past the area was frequently subjected to the overflow of the Arve, the Drize and the Aire rivers. The Acacias and Bâtie districts are the only ones in the city of Geneva located on the left bank of the Arve.

History

The area, along with neighbouring La Praille, initially belonged to the lord of Lancy before moving under the lordship of La Bâtie-Meillé in 1347. This district was progressively developed from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

onwards by sewage works, allowing market gardening activities on the Arve side and livestock breeding towards la Praille. The left bank, however, remained contested between then-independent Geneva and neighbouring

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

until it came under Swiss jurisdiction in the middle of the 19th Century. Exchanges with the city increased significantly from there onwards: a paved road is inaugurated in 1878 and

streetcars A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

start crossing the Arve in 1889. The

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

and the canton bought land in 1919, and the construction of a commercial railroad station in La Praille led to major infrastructure work, including the canalization of the Drize and Aire rivers (1935). The canton bought the land back from the SBB in 1950 to turn it into an industrial district. Companies rented plots for 90 years (surface rights). In just two years, 42 companies set up in Les Acacias. The district that was built was thus popular, artisanal and industrial. The Vernets

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

were built in 1958, and a ice skating rink in 1959 that now hosts the Genève-Servette hockey team.

Rolex Rolex () is a Swiss watch brand and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by German businessman Hans Wilsdorf and his eventual brother-in-law Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex ...

set up its headquarters in 1965: the company, via the Hans-Wilsdorf Foundation would later come to build a replacement to the 1952 "temporary" Vernets footbridge, the iconic Hans-Wilsdorf Bridge (2012). Geneva-based

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

company Sicli, founded in 1923, built its new manufacturing building at 45 route des Acacias in 1969. Known as the "Sicli Pavilion", it was acquired by the Canton in 2011 after the company's departure, and then registered in the Geneva inventory of historical monuments in 2012. As a cultural space, this place is now dedicated to architecture, construction and urban planning. The reinforced concrete shell roof rests on seven anchors, and is one of the most remarkable achievements of the engineer Heinz Isler. The Acacias Park was created in 1979, on a former industrial site acquired by the City of Geneva. It was later renamed after social reformer

Eglantyne Jebb Eglantyne Jebb (25 August 1876 – 17 December 1928) was a British social reformer who founded the Save the Children organisation at the end of World War I to relieve the effects of famine in Austria-Hungary and Germany. She drafted the docu ...

.{{Cite web , title=Parc Eglantyne Jebb (ex parc des Acacias) , url=https://www.geneve.ch/fr/parc-eglantyne-jebb-parc-acacias , access-date=2022-08-13 , website=www.geneve.ch , language=fr

References

category:Geography of Geneva