Jean-Henri Bachofen
Born in Nänikon – Uster (Switzerland) on 18 March 1821.
Died in Plainpalais – Genève (Switzerland) on 14 March 1889.
Swiss · Nineteenth-century cartography, topography and architecture.
Jean-Henri Bachofen, baptised Johann Heinrich, was a Swiss draughtsman, painter and topographer who also worked as an architect and building contractor. His career links the mapping of Swiss territory with several significant buildings in the Geneva region.
In 1840 he worked with Ernst Heinrich Michaelis as a cartographic draughtsman on the Dufour map of the canton of Aargau. He subsequently joined Guillaume-Henri Dufour’s office in Geneva. His survey for a map of the canton of Geneva dates from 1849; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland also records studies in science and humanities in Geneva that year.
The Geneva synagogue, now Beth Yaacov, was built to his plans in 1857–1858. The cantonal architectural inventory describes a central plan, a ribbed octagonal dome and corner towers, using a Moorish-inspired architectural vocabulary. The building has been a protected historic monument since 1989.
The EPFL Archives de la construction moderne preserve original drawings by Bachofen in the Morsier and Weibel collection, file 0164.04.0032. A sheet of plans and sections numbered 114, executed in ink, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, bears the Council of State’s approval dated 18 September 1857. It distinguishes Bachofen’s design from the later alterations also documented in the file.
The Protestant church at Versoix, built under his direction in 1857–1858, is a neo-Gothic rectangular building preceded by a porch. It was inaugurated on 7 November 1858; the present bell tower belongs to Auguste Bordier’s enlargement of 1902 rather than Bachofen’s initial design. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland also attributes to him the Geneva post office built in 1860 and demolished in 1912.