The Fountain of Justice
A painted sixteenth-century figure — the city's oldest fountain.
Gzzz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0
Start at the **Place de la Palud** (the animated clock, the fountain, the cafés), climb the **covered market stairs** to the **cathedral** (the view and the south rose), descend west to the **Place de la Riponne** and the Palais de Rumine with its free museums, then take the m2 metro down to **Ouchy** and the lake to end the day on the promenade. A full half-day on foot, and most of it free.
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The Place de la Palud is Lausanne's oldest square and the heart of its old town: a cobbled space ringed by coloured houses with wooden shutters, with the seventeenth-century **town hall** and its clock standing at one end. At its centre is the sixteenth-century **Fountain of Justice**, its painted figure of a blindfolded woman holding scales — the city's oldest fountain. On an adjoining façade is an **animated clock**: its windows open on the hour (between nine in the morning and seven in the evening) and carved figures representing the history of the canton of Vaud file past — a short free show that children gather for. The square holds a market twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday mornings) of vegetables, cheese and flowers, and from it the old town's lanes climb toward the cathedral by way of the **covered market stairs**. The cafés around it are the best place to sit in Lausanne.
A painted sixteenth-century figure — the city's oldest fountain.
Carved figures telling the canton's history each hour.
A seventeenth-century façade at the square's end.
Place de la Palud, 1003 Lausanne