Hello and welcome to this tour presented by the Neuchâtel city government.

Neuchâtel has a very long and rich history shaped by the major changes in the world around it that continue to this day. The region’s political, economic and social history is well known. Yet scientific research has yielded new information about Neuchâtel’s colonial past that deserves to be highlighted.

The tour you are about to embark upon will help you better understand how and why Neuchâtel’s history is linked to slavery and colonialism. This past is still visible in its buildings and urban development. To see it, all you have to do is look up. The city itself reveals its past to us.

This guided tour was conceived in response to a wave of criticism of certain historical statues and even a worldwide movement against them. A petition launched in 2020 demanded that the authorities remove the statue of David de Pury from the square named after him. A few days later, an opposing citizens’ petition demanded that Neuchâtel’s history be respected. In the course of this tour, you will see how the city government has implemented measures to take both positions into consideration.

European colonialism began at the end of the fifteenth century when Europeans discovered lands previously unknown to them. Then came wars of conquest to seize resources such as precious metals and foodstuffs, and the slave trade to cultivate plants newly prized in Europe such as tobacco and sugar cane. The Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Latin America won their independence during the nineteenth century, while European countries held onto their colonies in Africa and Asia until the twentieth century. Colonialism has contributed to the glaring inequalities that are still visible throughout the world today.

Slavery, racism and colonialism influenced our present. Because of prejudices regarding the colour of their skin, for example, many people in Switzerland experience discrimination in hiring and in their contact with the police.

What has linked the city of Neuchâtel with this colonial past? How can its walls still attest to this past? What lessons should be drawn from it today?

This guided tour addresses these questions. It is based on the latest historical research, which continues today in order to better understand this past.