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Conches

Canton of Geneva · No published figure for the locality; the municipality of Chêne-Bougeries has 14'906 inhabitants (31.12.2025)
Part of the municipality of Chêne-Bougeries
View of Conches
Photo: Alexey M., CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Conches

Nobody knows where the name Conches comes from, and its first written mention is not known.

Founding of Conches

Nobody knows how Conches came into being. Near the Arve, it is one of the districts of the municipality of Chêne-Bougeries, together with Grange-Canal, Malagnou, Le Vallon and La Pommière. The area is made up of old estates such as the propriété Lombard, and for a long time pupils had to go to the village of Chêne-Bougeries.[1][2]

History of Conches

1740. Horace Bénédict de Saussure is born at Conches on 17 February. He died in Genève in 1799.[2]

1913. The Conches school opens; pupils had previously gone to the school in the village of Chêne-Bougeries. Shortly afterwards a secondary school, today a commercial school, is built next to it.

1972. The City of Genève buys the Villa Lombard, on chemin Calandrini, where the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève then shows its regional collections (Conches annex, later «MEG Conches», closed on 23 June 2013).[5]

1984. The gallery « La Primaire » opens in the former school, for exhibitions and concerts.

Historic sites in Conches

Conches school. Opened in 1913, with a roof inspired by the Swiss style fashionable at the National Exhibition of 1896. Since 1984 it has housed the gallery « La Primaire ».

Propriété Lombard. The syndic Philippe Des Arts (1686-1754) received this estate in poor condition, planted vines and built it at a date not known for certain. It later passed to the Naville and Lombard-Trembley families. It is one of the few estates in the area to have remained almost undivided.

Maison Vert-Pré. First attached to the Pommière estate, the house is today a clinic. The Revue wagnérienne is said to have been founded here, though this is not certain.

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Chêne-Bougeries » (Christiane Genequand), version du 14.07.2005 (version allemande lue)
  2. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Saussure, Horace Bénédict de », version du 23.02.2011
  3. Commune de Chêne-Bougeries, « La balade de Conches » (dépliant, ASPACO)
  4. geo.admin.ch (swisstopo), recherche de lieux « Conches »
  5. Ville de Genève, Conseil municipal, motion M-1104 « Valorisons le domaine de la villa Lombard et son parc de 3 hectares (ex-annexe de Conches) ! », 30.10.2013
  6. Office cantonal de la statistique (OCSTAT), Mémento statistique du canton de Genève 2026, tableau Population résidante par commune, en 2025

Other villages near Conches

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