Olympic Capital on Lake Geneva — terraced vineyards, fondue, and the best views in Switzerland
Lausanne is the Olympic Capital of the world — the International Olympic Committee has been based here since 1915, and the Olympic Museum on the lake shore is the city's most visited attraction. But Lausanne's real draw is its setting: a steeply terraced city climbing from the Léman shoreline through the medieval old town (with Switzerland's finest Gothic cathedral) to the vineyards of Lavaux, a UNESCO-listed wine-growing landscape on the slopes above the lake.
Lausanne was a Celtic settlement before becoming a Roman town (Lausonium) on the shores of Lacus Lemanus. The city's greatest medieval era came under the Prince-Bishops who built the cathedral (12th–13th century) and made Lausanne an ecclesiastical capital controlling territories across what is now Vaud. The Reformation arrived in 1536 when Bern conquered the region, transforming it into a Protestant city and eventually the capital of the Vaud canton. The IOC relocated its headquarters from Paris to Lausanne in 1915, cementing its status as the global home of the Olympic movement.