Lake Geneva & Fountain

The Jet d’Eau, the symbol steeped in history is a large fountain in Geneva, Switzerland and is one of the city’s most famous landmarks. Jet d’Eau, literally meaning ‘water jet‘, is the huge Fountain on the Geneva Lake, in the city of Geneva, Switzerland.

It is one of the tallest fountain in the world. Originally, in 1886 they built the fountain to control and release the excess pressure of a hydraulic plant at La Coulouvrenière. Five hundred litres of water per second are jetted to an altitude of 140 metres (460 ft) by two 500 kW pumps, operating at 2,400 V, consuming one megawatt of electricity.

But the Jet d’Eau wasn’t always a tourist attraction. This is the story of how Geneva’s unique fountain came to be and how it acquired the iconic status it enjoys today.