The highlights and the most important results of 50 years of physics at CERN will be underlined and explained. We will describe briefly a few key experiments which contributed to pave the way for the quark model, then for the electroweak Standard Model and Chromodynamics. We will insist on the very accurate testing of these modern gauge theories and on the conclusions one can draw presently. A special emphasis will be put on twoflagship programmes: neutrinos and antiprotons at CERN. The successive mutations of the experimental techniques will be presented. Some possibilities for the future, besides and after LHC, will be outlined.
