Geneva, Switzerland has a new tool for visitors: a chance to wander the city’s streets as they were 160+ years ago, when it was much smaller and still surrounded by its fortified walls.
The website geneve1850.ch, launched this week, is based on a model of Geneva in 1850 made by architect Auguste Magnin and his assistants between 1878 and 1896. The new tool, similar to Google’s Street View, is possible because it was found that the original was made with a geometric accuracy unexpected for its time.
For now, the streets are empty, but there are plans to harness new digital technologies to bring it even more alive with people and activity.
The model, with 2,000 buildings, 40,000 windows and 1,500 trees, was shown for years in Geneva’s Art and History Museum and more recently in Maison Tavel, Geneva’s oldest private house.
The project also has a very practical effect: the mass of data generated by analyzing the model has been made public. Researchers have already used it to develop a tool to measure migration in the 19th century, by cross referencing the digital model with residence permits.
