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Why did Voltaire move to Ferney near the Swiss border?
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Voltaire
Voltaire, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.
Voltaire moved to Ferney, a property he purchased on the Swiss border at the end of 1758, primarily to escape the mounting social and political conflicts he faced while living in Geneva.1
After initially being welcomed in Geneva, Voltaire eventually provoked the hostility of local intellectuals and pastors, particularly following the publication of an article on Geneva in the Encyclopédie that he had inspired. Feeling unsafe and longing to retire from these public quarrels, he chose to settle at Ferney. By positioning his estate across the frontier, he was able to safeguard himself against potential police incursions from either France or Switzerland.1