Free Walking Tour Vevey: Fork, Chaplin and Old Town

Your Vevey Walking Tour, from the Fork to the Food Museum

1. 1

   The Fork of Vevey

   

   The tour starts in the water. Just off the shore, a stainless steel fork 8 metres tall and 1.3 metres wide stands planted in Lake Geneva, a piece of cutlery scaled up for giants. It belongs to the Alimentarium, the food museum right behind you, which also looks after it, and that connection explains why a fork, of all things, became the town's best-known photo.

   The Swiss artist Jean-Pierre Zaugg created it in 1995 to mark the museum's tenth anniversary, as part of a temporary exhibition. In 1996 it was taken away again, and that could have been the end of it. But people missed it, and a public petition brought it back: in September 2007 it returned for the exhibition 'Couverts découverts', and at the end of 2008 the canton of Vaud agreed that it could stay in the lake for good.

   The museum likes to call it the largest fork in the world, and since 2014 Guinness World Records has listed it as such. The claim is shakier than it looks: there is an 11 metre fork in Springfield, Missouri, and a 12 metre one in Creede, Colorado. Vevey's is still the one standing in a lake with mountains behind it.

   Take your photo, then walk about 20 m along the promenade, a minute at most, to the man in the bowler hat.

   Local name

   La Fourchette

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   The Fork of Vevey on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Charlie Chaplin Statue

   

   On the same quay, out in the open, stands Charlie Chaplin in bronze as the Tramp. The British sculptor John Doubleday made the statue, and it was placed here in 1982. It is not just a friendly piece of decoration: Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life in this region, at the Manoir de Ban above the town, and the statue keeps that link visible on the waterfront where everyone passes.

   A couple of minutes are enough here. What makes this short stretch worth noticing is the pairing: within a few metres of each other, Vevey presents itself with a giant fork and a film legend, one standing for the food company that shaped the town, the other for its most famous resident.

   From here it is 500 m, about 7 minutes, to the largest open space of the walk. On the way you pass the Swiss Camera Museum, which stands right on the square you are heading for.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Charlie Chaplin Statue on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Place du Marché

   

   Place du Marché, also called the Grand-Place, opens straight onto the lake. With more than 17,000 square metres it is the largest square in Vevey and one of the largest open squares in Europe. On most days much of it serves as a car park, which is why it can look plain at first. Turn towards the water, though, and you see what gives it its reputation: the open lake and, across it, the mountains of the Chablais.

   Look around the edges. The square is lined by the Théâtre de poche, the Swiss Camera Museum, the former house of Madame de Warens, the Château de l'Aile and the Grenette, the old market hall. Both the square and the Grenette are listed as Swiss cultural property of national significance.

   This has been a market place since the Middle Ages, and it still is: on Tuesday and Saturday mornings a market takes over part of the surface. Since 1801 local cadets have held their military displays here. Since 1797 the square has been the stage for the Fête des Vignerons, the winegrowers' festival held only every 25 years, and since 1968 a folklore market has taken place here every summer. The Saint-Martin fair on the second Tuesday of November is older still: in 2017 it was held for the 548th time.

   Not everyone loves the car park. For years, plans to redesign the square have been drawn up, including one to turn it into a park with parking underground, and each one has ended in political fights in the town without the population agreeing on any of them. From here you leave the lake and head 340 m, about 5 minutes, to the art museum.

   Location

   Place du Marché on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Musée Jenisch

   

   The neoclassical building in front of you has housed the Musée Jenisch since 1897, and it is the second-largest art museum in the canton of Vaud. Look up at the pediment: it carries a replica of the tympanum of the Pantheon. Inside, in the style of the time, the entrance hall was decorated with mosaic floors, antique-style columns and statuettes.

   The money came from a woman with a soft spot for Vevey. Fanny Henriette Jenisch, daughter of a merchant from Lübeck, gave the town 200,000 gold francs as thanks for the many holidays she had spent here with her husband, the Hamburg senator Martin Johann Jenisch. For almost a century the building also held a natural history collection with a public library and plenty of stuffed animals, until those moved to the zoological museum in Lausanne in the 1980s.

   Since 1989 the Oskar Kokoschka Foundation and the cantonal print room have been based here, and the focus is on works on paper: drawings, engravings and prints. After three years of renovation and extension by the Lausanne architects Bakker and Blanc, the museum reopened in June 2012. The ground floor shows temporary exhibitions three times a year, while the upper floor holds the treasures: the Kokoschka room with his printed works and historical paintings from the 16th century to the present.

   Go in if prints, drawings or Kokoschka mean something to you; if not, the facade is the part to see. Entry is charged. The Russian church is only 120 m away, a 2 minute walk.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 11:00–18:00, Thu until 20:00 during events, Mon closed; special festival hours daily 11:00–19:00 during Images Vevey (5-27 Sept); closed Dec 25 & Jan 1

   Price

   CHF 12 adults, CHF 10 seniors/retired, CHF 5 students/IV/unemployed, under 18 free; free on the first weekend of each month

   Website

   museejenisch.ch ↗

   Location

   Musée Jenisch on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Russian Church (Sainte-Barbara)

   

   This small Orthodox church, dedicated to the Great Martyr Barbara, is a reminder that in the 19th century a sizeable Russian community lived around Lake Geneva: bourgeois families mostly in Geneva, nobility around Montreux and Vevey. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance.

   Behind it lies a family tragedy. Count Schouwaloff, one of the most prominent Russians in Vevey, lost his wife and then his only daughter, Barbara. Depending on the source, she had married either Prince Dolgorouki or Count Orloff. To keep her memory alive, the count built this church in her name.

   The design came from Saint Petersburg, drawn by Ippolito Antonovitch Monighetti between 1875 and 1878, while the Vaud architect Samuel Késer built it. It was consecrated on 1 November 1878, became a parish church in 1949 and was listed as cultural property of national significance in 1977. For a long time, who should run it was a matter of dispute between the churches of Vevey and Geneva.

   Entry is free, but the church opens only on a few afternoons a week, so if you want to see the interior, time your walk for that. Otherwise enjoy it from outside and continue 260 m, about 5 minutes, up to Église Saint-Martin.

   Hours

   Wed & Sat 14:00–17:00, Sun 13:00–16:00, Mon–Tue & Thu–Fri closed

   Price

   Free

   Website

   sainte-barbara.ch ↗

   Location

   Russian Church (Sainte-Barbara) on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Église Saint-Martin

   

   Église Saint-Martin sits on the edge of a terrace at 405 metres, a little more than thirty metres above the lake, and the terrace is the reason to come up here: the view opens over the old town to Lake Geneva. Built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and enlarged in the 19th, it is a reformed church and one of the main works of late Gothic architecture in western Switzerland, listed as cultural property of national significance.

   The site is much older than the building. A church here is first mentioned around the year 1000, though it probably goes back to the early Middle Ages. Excavations in 1989 uncovered a burial ground with 845 graves from the early to late Middle Ages. In the 11th or 12th century a larger Romanesque church replaced the old one, and its foundations can still be seen in the lower level of today's church.

   For centuries Saint-Martin stood outside the town, with its large cemetery, at the edge of farmland and vineyards that spread to the northeast. Only after the Simplon railway line was built along the foot of the terrace, and even more in the 20th century, did Vevey grow up around it. West of the church, on the Veveyse stream, stood the original Nestlé factories.

   Entry is free; if a service is on, visit quietly or come back later. Then comes the longest leg of the loop: 640 m, about 9 minutes, back down to the town's history museum.

   Local name

   Église réformée Saint-Martin de Vevey

   Hours

   Daily 09:00–18:00; Sunday service 10:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   eerv.ch ↗

   Location

   Église Saint-Martin on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Musée historique de Vevey

   

   The town's history museum is the easiest decision on the route. Entry is charged but modest, and under-18s get in free, so if you want the background to everything you have seen so far, this is the low-risk place to go inside.

   Even a short visit fits well between the hill and the lake. If you are planning more museum time than this loop needs, ask at the desk about the combi ticket before you pay for single entries.

   From here it is 250 m, about 3 minutes, back to the water along the Quai Perdonnet, to the food museum that started the whole story with its fork.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 11:00–17:00, Mon closed (open on public holiday Mondays; during Images Vevey open daily 11:00–19:00; closed Dec 25 & Jan 1)

   Price

   CHF 5 adults, CHF 4 reduced (students, AVS/AI, unemployed), youth under 18 free; free on the first weekend of each month

   Website

   museehistoriquevevey.ch ↗

   Location

   Musée historique de Vevey on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Alimentarium

   

   The neoclassical building on the shore was Nestlé's first administrative centre, opened in 1921. The company's management stayed until 1936, moved to a new headquarters and moved again in 1958. In 1980 a museum of human nutrition was announced for the building; after a complete renovation it finally opened on 21 June 1985, a few years later than first planned.

   Today the Alimentarium is run by a foundation funded by Nestlé, with a board that includes representatives of the company, the Federal Department of the Interior and the canton of Vaud. For Nestlé's 150th anniversary in 2016 the museum was renovated again, gaining an annex and a botanical garden of edible plants. Like several places on this walk, it is listed as cultural property of national significance.

   The permanent exhibition is built around four verbs: cooking, buying, eating and digesting, and it also tells the history of Nestlé. Temporary exhibitions and cooking workshops add to it, and the museum restaurant often serves dishes linked to the current exhibition.

   Go inside if you travel with children or are curious about food and the company that shaped Vevey; entry is charged. When you come out, the fork you started with stands right in front of the museum, a minute away, and the loop is closed.

   Hours

   Oct–Mar Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00; Apr–Sep Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00; Mon closed (except Vaud public holidays)

   Price

   CHF 15 adults (16+), CHF 12 reduced, CHF 6 child (6-15), child 0-5 free, CHF 35 family (2 adults + max 4 children)

   Website

   alimentarium.org ↗

   Location

   Alimentarium on Google Maps ↗

Three Ways to Shape Your Vevey Walk

The full loop is short enough to do in one go, but the three paid museums decide how long your day becomes. These versions keep the same order and simply change where you go inside.

Free sights only

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

For anyone who wants the town rather than the galleries. You walk the whole loop, the same 31 minutes, but only stop properly at the fork, Chaplin, the market square and the two churches, all of which cost nothing. The museums you pass from outside.

Art and history afternoon

Stops: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For museum people. From Place du Marché to the history museum it is 21 minutes of walking, with time inside the Musée Jenisch and the Musée historique de Vevey, both with entry fees. The churches in between are free, and the Russian Church opens on afternoons only, which suits this version.

Lakefront with the food museum

Stops: 8, 1, 2

For families or a short visit. The Alimentarium, the fork and Chaplin sit together on the water, about 2 minutes of walking in total. Only the Alimentarium charges entry, and it fills an hour or two on its own.

How Long This Vevey Tour Takes, With and Without Museums

The pure walking time is 31 minutes for 2.1 km, and the loop brings you back to where you started. Without going inside any museum, around an hour and a half is realistic, with time to read the square, look into the Russian Church when it is open and enjoy the terrace at Église Saint-Martin.

Each museum you visit adds roughly an hour, the Alimentarium often more, so the full loop with all three becomes a relaxed day. The free version takes about the same hour and a half as the outdoor walk, the art and history afternoon around three hours, and the lakefront version two hours or less.

Before You Set Off in Vevey

• Start and finish: The recommended start is The Fork of Vevey, and you finish at the Alimentarium right behind it. You can join the loop at any stop and follow the order from there.
• Time of day: The Russian Church only opens on a few afternoons a week, so an afternoon start gives you the best chance of seeing it inside. Check the hours of the church and the museums before you pick your day.
• Entry: The Musée Jenisch, the Musée historique de Vevey and the Alimentarium charge entry. The fork, the Chaplin statue, the Russian Church and Église Saint-Martin are free.
• Free entry days: The Musée Jenisch and the Musée historique de Vevey both have free-entry days and a good deal for young visitors, so it pays to check before you go.

Common Questions About Walking Vevey