History of the villages of the Broye district (Fribourg)
The 59 documented localities of the Broye district, in the canton of Fribourg. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Towns and villages 58
Aumont
Five La Tène burial mounds on Aumont's land have yielded jewellery. In 1321 Conon d'Estavayer sold half the village's lands to the church of Saint-Laurent in Estavayer.
FRAutavaux
On the shore at Autavaux, bronze parts of a two-wheeled chariot imported from Tuscany or Latium were found, known as the « poignée de char étrusque ».
FR · Merger 2016Belmont-Broye
Approved in Domdidier by 597 votes to 563, the merger of four villages of the lower Broye had to go before the Federal Supreme Court before Belmont-Broye was born in 2016.
FRBollion
Bollion's land was part of the « grande commune » of Font, Châbles and Châtillon. The village received its own municipal territory only in 1806.
FRBussy
In 1869, after centuries of quarrels with Morens, Bussy becomes the seat of the parish. Its present church, by Fernand Dumas, dates from 1936-1937.
FRChâbles
Châbles holds the largest Middle Bronze Age cemetery known in Switzerland, excavated from 1996 to 2000. In 1642 a fire destroyed almost the whole village.
FRChandon
In 1908 the Polish chemist Ignacy Moscicki, future president of Poland, was naturalised Swiss and admitted as a citizen of Chandon.
FRChapelle (Broye)
Made up of the village of Chapelle and the two hamlets of Coumin, the municipality was called Chapelle-près-Surpierre until 1953 and had only 59 inhabitants left in 2004.
FRChâtillon
On the slope of Châtillon, above Font and Lake Neuchâtel, several Roman villas, frescoes and inscribed marble slabs have been found.
FRCheiry
A parish church as early as 1228, the church of Cheiry was probably the first in the Surpierre area. Today's church, built in 1966, is said to be the newest in the canton.
FRCheyres
A Roman mosaic showing Orpheus was uncovered at Cheyres in 1778 and destroyed soon afterwards. Bought by Fribourg in 1704, the village then became the seat of a bailiwick.
FR · Merger 2017Cheyres-Châbles
In 2014 Cheyres and Châbles left the large merger project around Estavayer-le-Lac to unite on their own. On 27 September 2015 Châbles voted yes by 336 votes to 54.
FRCousset
A long street village on the road from Fribourg to Estavayer-le-Lac, Cousset has had a station on the Fribourg to Payerne line since 1876. It is the best-served village in the municipality of Montagny.
FRCugy
Founded no doubt before the year 1000, the parish of Cugy reached as far as Nuvilly, Aumont, Montet, Frasses and Seiry. Only Vesin still belongs to it.
FRDelley
Bought by the Castella family in 1679, the lordship of Delley gained a manor by André-Joseph Rossier around 1706. The family kept it until 1983.
FR · Merger 2005Delley-Portalban
United in a single parish since 1858, Delley and Portalban have formed one municipality since 1 January 2005.
FR · TownDomdidier
Freed at the end of the 14th century, the people of Domdidier saw their franchises confirmed by Fribourg in 1514, 1569 and 1664.
FRDompierre (FR)
As early as 587 Bishop Marius endowed the church of Payerne with property at Dompierre, a village known as Dompierre-le-Petit until the 18th century.
FR · Town · Merger 2017Estavayer
On 14 June 2015 seven Broye municipalities vote yes to their union, from Morens with 66 yes votes to Estavayer-le-Lac. Estavayer is born on 1 January 2017 and now has over 10'000 inhabitants.
FR · TownEstavayer-le-Lac
Estavayer-le-Lac received its franchises from Isabelle de Chalon in 1350. Its collegiate church was built from 1379 to 1525, and its museum keeps 108 stuffed frogs.
FRFétigny
Dated 1808, the school at Fétigny was the first public school in the French-speaking part of the canton after compulsory schooling was introduced in 1807.
FR · Merger 2026Fétigny-Ménières
After the five-way merger called « Verdières » failed in 2015, Fétigny and Ménières joined as a pair and formed Fétigny-Ménières on 1 January 2026.
FRFont
In 1011 King Rudolph III of Burgundy gave the royal castle of Font to his betrothed, Ermengarde. The Confederates burned it in 1475.
FRForel (FR)
In 1594 Louis Griset bought Forel and made it a lordship. The village stands on a cliff above Lake Neuchâtel.
FRFranex
The small chapel of Saint-Nicolas at Franex holds thirteen painted statuettes from the late 15th century: Christ and the twelve apostles.
FRFrasses
In 1881 a gold coin of the emperor Tiberius was dug up at Benguezin. Frasses is also one of the few municipalities in the Broye with no forest at all.
FRGletterens
On the lakeshore, the Neolithic site of Gletterens-Les Grèves, where villages followed one another between 3286 and 3149 BC, has been a Unesco World Heritage site since 2011.
FRGrandsivaz
Grandsivaz, the « great forest » from the Latin grandis silva, has been crossed since the 1930s by the dead-straight cantonal road from Fribourg to Payerne.
FRGranges-de-Vesin
Granges-de-Vesin left Aumont in 1804 to become a municipality. The Chemin des Mulets recalls the salt carried by mule between Lake Constance and Lake Geneva.
FRLa Vounaise
Recorded in 1325 as « Vounesy », La Vounaise formed a single municipality with Murist and Montborget until 1816, then joined them again in 1981.
FRLéchelles
A toll point on the edge of the Old Lands, Léchelles let Fribourg merchants pass free of duty. In the 12th century the lords of Belmont had built their castle here.
FRLes Friques
Les Friques and Villars-le-Grand form a single settlement, but the Avenches to Portalban road that divides them is also the border between Fribourg and Vaud.
FR · Merger 2004Les Montets
Since 1 January 2004 Les Montets has united Aumont, Frasses, Granges-de-Vesin and Montet. On 23 September 2003 Granges-de-Vesin and Montet had approved the agreement without a single vote against.
FRLully
The church of Saint-Léger in Lully stands on a 6th-7th century mausoleum. It was preceded by a Carolingian sanctuary and then a 10th-century wooden church.
FRMannens-Grandsivaz
Grandsivaz takes its name from the Latin "grandis silva", the great forest. United with Mannens in 1831, the municipality bore only the name Mannens until 1953.
FRMénières
From 1907 to 1910 Ménières carried out the first land consolidation in the canton of Fribourg.
FR · Merger 2004Montagny
Montagny was formed by two mergers, in 2000 and 2004. Its villages, from Cousset to Montagny-les-Monts, cover 1'752 hectares, the third largest area in the Fribourg Broye.
FRMontagny-la-Ville
Montagny-la-Ville keeps several patrician houses by the architect Charles de Castella. At Les Fauvettes, the Sisters of Providence of Langres opened an orphanage for girls in 1903.
FRMontagny-les-Monts
Plundered in 1476, burnt in 1504, sold in 1802 and then used as a quarry, the castle of the lords of Montagny has kept only its great 13th-century tower.
FRMontborget
Recorded in 1314 as « Mauborget », Montborget supplied part of the band that drove the bailiff out of Vuissens castle in 1798.
FRMontbrelloz
In the 12th century the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem founded a priory at Montbrelloz. Its Romanesque church, restored in 1986, still stands.
FRMontet (Broye)
In 1476, before the battle of Murten, Charles the Bold pitched his camp at Montet. The church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1660-1662, holds one of the great Baroque ensembles of French-speaking Switzerland.
FRMorens (FR)
Standing apart from Morens amid former marshland, the church of Saints-Ferréol-et-Ferjeux rests on Carolingian and 10th-century foundations.
FRMurist
Above Murist, the tower of La Molière, built in 1303, exchanged signals with Gourze and Saint-Triphon until 1798. Its sandstone was used to build the village church.
FRNuvilly
The church of Saint-Jacques at Nuvilly, built from 1687 to 1690 to plans by the parish priest Joseph Renevey, keeps a rare set of Baroque altarpieces carved by a local man, Jean-Pierre Broye.
FRPortalban
Five lakeside villages lie off Portalban. Excavated from 1962 to 1979, the Delley-Portalban II site spans more than a millennium, from 3600 to 2450 BC.
FRPraratoud
In 1943 a British bomber in distress dropped a bomb at the entrance to Praratoud. The British Crown paid for the damage, down to the broken eggs.
FRPrévondavaux
The castle of Prévondavaux, probably built for François de Gléresse in the second half of the 16th century, has stood abandoned since it was partly destroyed in 1900.
FRRueyres-les-Prés
The people of Rueyres-les-Prés are nicknamed « Brise-Pentores »: tradition says they tore out in one night the boundary stones set by the lords of Estavayer.
FRRussy
Remains survive at Russy of the Roman aqueduct that carried water from the spring of Prez-vers-Noréaz to Avenches.
FRSaint-Aubin
Saint-Aubin keeps the castle that Louis Vallier had built in 1631. The Fribourg bailiffs lived there from 1691 to 1798, and the primary school moved in in 1852.
FRSeiry
In 1704 Fribourg bought the lordship of Cheyres, Bollion and Seiry. The three villages formed the last bailiwick acquired by the canton, and the smallest.
FRSévaz
Recorded in 1167, the small priory of Sévaz depended on the canons of the Great St Bernard, and its chapel of Saint-Nicolas still stands in the village.
FRSurpierre
Perched on a cliff above the Broye, in a Fribourg enclave within Vaud, Surpierre housed the diocese's first seminary from 1691 to 1709.
FRVallon
On 30 May 1985, excavations at Vallon ahead of a housing project uncovered a Roman villa. Its venatio mosaic is the largest preserved in situ in Switzerland.
FRVesin
From 1919 Vesin was home to the Syndicat des sélectionneurs de la Broye, which supplied cereal seed to several cantons.
FRVilleneuve (FR)
Villeneuve quarried sandstone for furnaces from its own ground and saw floods of the Broye inundate its land in 1594, 1910 and 1944.
FRVuissens
A Fribourg enclave in Vaud territory, Vuissens housed the bailiffs of Font-Vuissens in its castle from 1604 to 1798. In 1798 a band from neighbouring villages put the bailiff to flight.