In the early sixteenth century, on the eve of the Reformation, Geneva's economy was in a slump and the city was becoming depopulated. The emergence of fairs in Lyons hastened the decline of Geneva's formerly prosperous markets, and the once-opulent city had fallen into indigence.

The first traces of the Reformation, a movement begun in Germany by Martin Luther in 1517, appeared in Geneva around 1525. It took ten years for the Reformation, preached by the French reformer Guillaume Farel, to be adopted by the Genevans, between 1535 and 1536. But it was only with the arrival of John Calvin, in July 1536, that the movement truly took off; he turned Geneva into one of the main centres of religious thought in Europe, with a reputation that far outstripped the independent republic's modest size.

Soon thereafter, from the 1540s onward, Geneva became a city of refuge for followers of the Reformation persecuted in their homeland. These men and women found in Geneva a haven where they could freely live their faith, while benefiting from the insightful teachings of Calvin and his fellow pastors on the scriptures, the foundation of their faith.

The first 'Refuge' began in the mid-sixteenth century and peaked in 1572 after the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day, when the royal government attempted to physically eliminate all the Protestants in France.

Hailing mostly from France, but also from Italy, England and even Spain, the refugees brought skills with them to Geneva: they provided the pastors that the city needed to grow spiritually, the professors, lawyers and doctors who fostered its intellectual and social expansion, printers, watchmakers, goldsmiths, textile specialists and merchant bankers who spurred its economic development. Moreover, the French, who made up three-quarters of the refugees, consolidated the position of French as the main language of the city.