Victoria Hall
Neo-baroque concert hall of 1894 near Place Neuve, main home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Victoria Hall was built between 1891 and 1894 for Daniel Fitzgerald Packenham Barton, the British consul in Geneva, who paid for a concert hall in honour of Queen Victoria and gave it to the city. The Geneva architect John Camoletti produced a Beaux-Arts facade and an interior of neo-baroque, almost rococo, decoration in white and gold. The hall seats roughly 1,600 and was inaugurated on 28 November 1894.
A fire in September 1984 destroyed much of the auditorium; after a long restoration that returned the painted decoration and installed a new organ by the Dutch builder van den Heuvel, the hall came back into use in the 1990s. It is the principal home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and also hosts the Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve, the Concours de Geneve, chamber series and the city's inexpensive Sunday afternoon concerts.
Highlights
- Beaux-Arts facade by John Camoletti, inaugurated in 1894
- Gilded neo-baroque auditorium seating about 1,600
- Principal home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
- Rebuilt after the fire of 1984, with a van den Heuvel organ
