Refugees from the Commune of 1871 at the Café du Levant in Geneva

After the repression of the Communards in Paris, many of them fled abroad where they were often badly received, e.g. in Great Britain and Switzerland. In Geneva the Café du Levant proved to be an important meeting point for exiled Communards from Paris and Lyon as illustrated in this contemporary sketch from the French newspaper Le Monde.

Le café du Levant à Genève, l’un des lieux de réunion des réfugiés de la Commune de Paris et de la Commune de Lyon, lithographie, 1872, artist unknown; source: Le Monde illustré, 27 April 1872, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6374594w/f9.item, digital copy: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.