Lausanne
Your child becomes the hero of a story set right here in Lausanne — at the city's real landmarks, in the familiar streets, in front of the buildings they know from everyday life.
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Or become part of the history of Lausanne
Below you find the historical tales of Lausanne — from old legends to famous local events. Create a free account, pick one as your starting point, your child takes a role inside it.
Historical tales from Lausanne
Real stories from the past of Lausanne — pick one and your child takes a role
The watchman who heard too much
A child sneaks up the 153 cathedral steps at night and joins the guet in his belfry. From the tower, the wind carries whispered secrets from all four cardinal directions -- each one a mystery from a different century of Lausanne's history. The child must solve all four riddles before the last call at 2 a.m., or the watchman's voice will fall silent forever.
Historical contextCreate This Story
The tradition of the guet (night watchman) of Lausanne Cathedral dates to 1405, when a devastating fire prompted the Archbishop to decree a permanent watch from the tower. Every night, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., the watchman climbs 153 steps to the belfry and calls out to the four cardinal directions: 'C'est le guet; il a sonne l'heure!' Lausanne's guet is one of only seven ceremonial night watchmen remaining in Europe and the only one who calls the hours year-round. The tradition is listed in Switzerland's Inventory of Living Traditions.
The lost mosaic of Lousonna
A Roman child in Lousonna buries a treasure mosaic in the garden before fleeing uphill to the fortified Cite as Alemanni raiders approach. Seventeen hundred years later, a modern child finds the first tile near the Musee Romain and follows the trail of coloured stones down to the ancient lakeshore, uncovering the story of a city that moved uphill to survive.
Historical contextCreate This Story
The Celtic-origin name 'Lousonna' likely means 'spring' or 'water.' The Roman vicus of Lousonna was established on the shore of Lac Leman at what is today the Vidy district. At its peak in the 1st-2nd centuries AD, it housed over 1,500 inhabitants and featured a forum with basilica, a sanctuary and temple, a theatre, and a port with dam. By the 4th century, the population abandoned the lakeshore and took refuge on the fortified hilltop of the Cite. Today, the Musee Romain de Lausanne-Vidy preserves the archaeological remains, including Roman wall paintings.
The rose window's secret cosmos
When moonlight hits the cathedral's great rose window at a precise angle, the 105 panels come alive: the four seasons swirl, the four elements clash, and the zodiac signs begin their celestial dance. A child standing in the transept must restore the cosmic balance by placing each element back in its rightful panel before dawn erases the enchantment.
Historical contextCreate This Story
The Rose Window (Rosace) on the south transept of Lausanne Cathedral was created around 1220-1230, measures 8 metres in diameter, and is attributed to master glazier Pierre d'Arras. Its 105 panels depict a medieval cosmology: the four seasons, four elements, four winds, four rivers of paradise, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. The architect Villard de Honnecourt sketched the rose window in his famous notebook around 1230 -- one of the earliest architectural drawings in European history. Pope Gregory X consecrated the cathedral on 20 October 1275.
Olympic dreams in Ouchy
A child discovers Pierre de Coubertin's forgotten notebook hidden in the Villa Mon-Repos, where Voltaire once staged plays. Each page describes an imaginary Olympic sport more fantastical than the last. To earn a place in a secret ceremony at the Olympic Museum, the child must compete across Lausanne's landmarks -- running up the Escaliers du Marche, swimming at Ouchy, and solving riddles atop the Sauvabelin tower.
Historical contextCreate This Story
On 10 April 1915, Pierre de Coubertin and Baron Godefroy de Blonay met with Lausanne's mayor Paul Maillefer and signed an agreement making the city the permanent headquarters of the International Olympic Committee. Coubertin chose neutral Switzerland to protect the Olympic movement during World War I. The Villa Mon-Repos -- the same mansion where Voltaire had staged plays -- housed the IOC secretariat. The Olympic Museum opened on 23 June 1993 in Ouchy, and Lausanne was officially designated the 'Olympic Capital' in 1994.
The ghost metro of Lausanne
On the steepest stretch of the M2, the automated train stops between stations at midnight. A child steps out into a hidden underground world where the old funicular of 1877 still runs on creaking cables, connecting Lausanne's past to its present. To return to the surface, the child must ride both railways and discover what connects the first public funicular in Switzerland to the world's steepest driverless metro.
Historical contextCreate This Story
Lausanne is the smallest city in the world (population approximately 140,000) with a full grade-separated metro system. Line M2, a fully automated, driverless, rubber-tyred metro, opened on 27 October 2008. The 5.9 km line runs from Ouchy-Olympique on the lakefront to Croisettes in Epalinges, with an average incline of 5.7% and up to 12% in places -- the steepest slopes of any adhesion-worked metro in the world. The system evolved from the 1877 Lausanne-Ouchy funicular, Switzerland's first public funicular railway.
Voltaire's last curtain call
In the gardens of Mon-Repos, a child stumbles upon an 18th-century stage hidden behind the hedges. Voltaire's ghost appears and needs one more actor to finish a play he never completed. The audience gathers from across the centuries -- Gibbon with his quill, Eliot clutching a half-finished poem, Chanel adjusting her pearls, Bowie tuning a guitar -- and the child must deliver the final line that brings them all together.
Historical contextCreate This Story
Voltaire stayed multiple times in Lausanne between 1755 and 1759, staging theatrical performances in a private amphitheatre near the Villa de Mon-Repos. He declared Lausanne gave him his 'happiest days.' Edward Gibbon spent formative years in Lausanne as a teenager (1753-1758), then returned (1783-1793) to complete The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. T.S. Eliot composed most of The Waste Land while under psychiatric care near Lausanne in late 1921. Coco Chanel lived in upper Lausanne for ten years. David Bowie lived at the Chateau du Signal from 1982 to 1997.
The double helix of Sauvabelin
A child climbing the wooden tower of Sauvabelin discovers that its two intertwined staircases lead to different versions of Lausanne: one spirals up to the city as it is today, the other descends to the forested three hills as they were before the Romans came. The child must climb both helixes to understand that every city is built on layers of time -- and that the forest always remembers.
Historical contextCreate This Story
The Tour de Sauvabelin, a 35-metre wooden observation tower, was built in 2003 by architect Julius Natterer using an innovative double-helix staircase design. To minimize environmental impact, it was constructed from dying Douglas fir trees (exterior) and local fir and spruce (interior). Visitors climb 151 steps to the platform for panoramic views of Lausanne, Lac Leman, and the Alps. The Bois de Sauvabelin is a large wooded area directly above the city centre, with a small lake and farm animals. The area was home to both Coco Chanel and David Bowie.
Eliot's unfinished line
A poet's notebook washes up on the shore at Ouchy, its pages half-blank. A child must travel up through the steep streets of Lausanne to Dr. Vittoz's old sanatorium, collecting scattered words along the way -- on bridges, staircases, and terraces -- to piece together the missing lines of a poem that, once completed, calms a great storm gathering over the lake.
Historical contextCreate This Story
T.S. Eliot composed most of The Waste Land while under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Roger Vittoz at a sanatorium near Lausanne from November 1921 to January 1922. Vittoz's method of 'brain control' -- focusing on specific objects, words, and images -- has striking parallels to modern mindfulness practices. Lausanne is built on three hills (Cite, Bourg, and Saint-Laurent) with the rivers Flon and Louve carving deep valleys between them. The steep terrain rises from 370 metres at the lakeshore to 870 metres in the Jorat forests.
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