The Palace houses the musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire, the Naturéum (the cantonal museum of natural sciences (uniting the former departments of geology, zoology and botany), a monetary museum, and the library of the University of Lausanne.
In 1871, Gabriel de Rumine (1841-1871), an aristocrat of Russian origin with a Lausanne mother, left 1’500’000 francs to the City of Lausanne for the construction of a public building. The City decided to build a new university at the foot of the City hill, and organised an architecture contest in 1889, which was won by Gaspard André of Lyon.
The palace features Florentine Renaissance style, alluding to the cradle of universalist humanism, which was influenced by its encyclopaedic ambitions.
Monumental columns, pergolas, loggias and bell towers adorn the 1906 building. The central portion joins two side wings and houses a highly elaborate section that includes, among other things, a central staircase that creates an optical illusion, an atrium with a small pond, and a network of galleries and overlapping ramps.
Palais Rumine and Place de la Riponne today and tomorrow
City: Lausanne
Country: Switzerland
Address: Place de la Riponne 6
Website: https://palaisderumine.ch/le-palais/accueil/