History of the villages of the Glâne district (Fribourg)
The 58 documented localities of the Glâne 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 57
Arrufens
Romont station was built at Arrufens in 1862, where the Fribourg-Lausanne and Romont-Bulle lines meet. Six years later the farming hamlet was joined to the town.
FRAuboranges
On the boundary with Essertes stands the « Pierre du dos à l'âne », a menhir 5.6 m high and weighing 25 tonnes, long taken for an ordinary stone before being recognised in 1991.
FRBerlens
On its hill east of Romont, Berlens keeps the church of Notre-Dame de l'Epine, a place of pilgrimage since 1639, which Jean Bazaine fitted with stained glass in 1980.
FRBillens
Until 1239 the lordship of Billens took in the hill of Romont. The castle built outside the village, bequeathed to the State in 1864, became the hospice and then the hospital of the Glâne.
FR · Merger 1998Billens-Hennens
United in the same parish since the 13th century, Billens and Hennens have formed a single municipality since 1998, on the road between Romont and Lucens.
FRBionnens
From 1574 to 1838 the lordship of Bionnens stayed in the hands of the Techtermann. In the 19th century the village also lived from straw plaiting.
FRBlessens
A rich Celtic grave and Roman remains have been found at Blessens. The knight Jordanus de Blessens is recorded here in 1287.
FRChapelle (Glâne)
On a mound, the oratory of the lords of Illens became the chapel of Notre-Dame des Champs, a much-visited pilgrimage around 1450.
FRChâtonnaye
In 1880 a burial mound in the Pralet wood at Châtonnaye yielded a large gold ring, one of the major Hallstatt period finds.
FRChavannes-les-Forts
Saint Marguerite Bays was born in 1815 in the hamlet of La Pierraz, at Chavannes-les-Forts, and died there in 1879. The Church canonised her in 2019.
FRChavannes-sous-Orsonnens
The chapel of Saint John the Baptist at Chavannes-sous-Orsonnens bears the arms of Guillaume Chassot and Marguerite Renaud. Its late Baroque molasse façade dates from 1769.
FREcublens
Ecublens, Eschiens and Villangeaux shared one administration from 1883 but only merged in 1969. Since 2025 Ecublens has housed the administration of the new municipality of Rue.
FREschiens
Eschiens stretches along an old medieval road from Oron to Moudon, between the Parimbot and the Broye. In the 13th century a noble family bore the hamlet's name.
FREsmonts
In 1834 the cantonal road regulations required Esmonts to supply 96 cartloads of stone a year. The village was already known in 996 as « villa de Mont ».
FREstévenens
In 2000, after its municipal council resigned, Estévenens was placed under state guardianship. Two years later the municipality voted to merge.
FRFuyens
Under the Ancien Régime Fuyens was a small lordship of the de Boccard family of Fribourg. The hamlet had 67 inhabitants in 1970, eight years before it was joined to Villaz-Saint-Pierre.
FRGillarens
Around 1147-1150 the abbey of Saint-Maurice ceded its land at Gillarens to the convent of Hautcrêt in return for a quitrent. Since 1928 the village has shared its parish with Chapelle.
FRGrangettes
Recorded in the 12th century, the castle of the lords of Grangettes burned in 1476 and has vanished. The church of Saint-Maurice, consecrated in 1430, was rebuilt after the fire of 1770.
FRHennens
From 1629 to 1647 the lordship of Hennens belonged to Baron François Pierre König, known as de Mohr, a general in imperial service and avoyer of Fribourg.
FRLa Joux
In 1720 gifts from Jean Pittet and his wife founded a chaplaincy at La Joux. The chaplains also taught school, and the village became a parish in 1886.
FRLa Magne
La Magne was never a compact village: its scattered farms, set back from the road from Romont to Bulle, had 48 inhabitants in 2000.
FRLa Neirigue
Plague ravaged La Neirigue in 1611. Forty years later the chapel of Saint-Garin was founded here, now a place of pilgrimage for the region.
FR · TownLe Châtelard
In 1274 the Count of Savoy granted franchises to Le Châtelard, a Gibloux village sold to Antoine de Montagny in 1449 and taken over by Fribourg in 1564.
FRLes Ecasseys
Until 1989 the Lacran farm was one of the last two in the canton allowed to make Gruyère cheese outside a dairy or an alpine chalet.
FRLes Glânes
In 1598 Fribourg granted Les Glânes as a fief to the banneret Jean Musy, squire of Romont, whose family kept the village until feudal rights were abolished.
FRLieffrens
By 1247 Lieffrens already had a church, perhaps the first seat of the parish that later moved to Vuisternens-devant-Romont.
FRLussy
Around a hundred early medieval graves have been uncovered at Fin de l'Illaz in Lussy, where the abbey of Hauterive owned a large grange.
FRMacconnens
A fief of the Billens family until about 1540, the lordship of Macconnens then passed to the Brayer and later the d'Amman families, who sold it to the State of Fribourg in 1840.
FRMassonnens
In 1663 the people of Massonnens and Ferlens asked to leave the parish of Orsonnens. They obtained their own in 1665, despite Orsonnens and the canons of Saint-Nicolas.
FRMézières
At Mézières castle the Diesbach family had French wallpapers hung between 1780 and 1830, including pieces from the Réveillon manufactory. Since 2007 they have formed the Musée du papier peint.
FRMiddes
In 1837 a dictionary called the lordship of Middes « célèbre dans le pays par le grand nombre de sorciers et sorcières ». A cross near the château recalls those trials.
FRMontet (Glâne)
In 1579 Montet had a castle with a gallows, a court, a sawmill and two mills on the Broye. The ruins of the castle still overlook the plain.
FRMorlens
Once the centre of one of the oldest parishes in Fribourg, founded between the 7th and 9th centuries, Morlens had only 34 inhabitants left in 1990.
FRMossel
In 1245 Guillaume de Saint-Martin gave Mossel to the convent of Hautcrêt, which ran a grange there. A « chemin des convers » is still recorded in 1740.
FROrsonnens
At the Château d'En Haut in Orsonnens, the Ursulines' domestic science school gave way in 1979 to a monastery of Vietnamese Cistercians.
FRPrez-vers-Siviriez
At the top of the Glâne valley, Prez-vers-Siviriez keeps traces of a Bronze Age settlement. A de Prez family lived here from the 13th to the 17th century.
FRPromasens
Rue, Chapelle, Gillarens and Mossel all belonged to the parish of Promasens, whose first priest is recorded before 1166. The village lies on the old Roman road from Vevey to Moudon.
FR · TownRomont
On a round hill in the Glâne, Peter II of Savoy founded a new town at the foot of his castle around 1240. Romont later received the franchises of Moudon and became one of the leading towns of Savoyard Vaud.
FR · TownRue
On its spur above the Broye, Rue received the franchises of Moudon at the end of the 13th century. In 1898 Ferdinand Ferber tried out his glider here from the castle.
FRSiviriez
The relics of Marguerite Bays, canonised in 2019, rest in the church of Saint-Sulpice at Siviriez, which has become a major place of pilgrimage.
FRSommentier
In 1262 Rodolphe d'Ecublens sold his estates at Sommentier to Count Peter II of Savoy. The village only got a church of its own in 1933-1934.
FR · Merger 2004Torny
Middes and Torny-le-Grand formed Torny on 1 January 2004. The new municipality then said no to two wider mergers, in 2014 and in 2015.
FRTorny-le-Grand
In 766 the abbey of Saint-Maurice received property at Torny. From 1965 to 1999 the army kept one of its six Bloodhound surface-to-air missile sites here.
FRUrsy
Cut into the molasse cliff of Ursy, the Mifroma cheese cellars, opened in 1965, employed 230 people in 2010.
FRVauderens
Vauderens had 20 hearths in 1278, but only 5 in 1359. The station opened in 1862 on the Lausanne-Bern line made the village grow denser.
FRVillangeaux
A Roman villa was uncovered at Villangeaux in 1926. In 1626 Guillaume Buttet, of Moudon, owned the entire territory of the village, including the oven and the field-warden rights.
FRVillaraboud
Before the chapel of Notre-Dame du Bois was built there in 1804, the place was thought to be haunted. A pilgrim from Einsiedeln is said to have left a statuette of the Virgin in a hollow tree.
FRVillaranon
A small lordship that passed from the Dompierre to the Estavayer, then to the Bonvillars and the Maillard, Villaranon was bought by the town of Fribourg in 1728.
FRVillargiroud
After storm Lothar in 1999, a Roman settlement came to light in the Joux forest at Villargiroud. The village now houses the administration of Villorsonnens.
FRVillariaz
In 1148 Guy d'Ependes gave his allodial estate of Villariaz to the abbey of Hauterive. About a dozen families later followed one another as lords of the manor.
FRVillarimboud
In 1448, during the war against Savoy, Fribourg troops burned Villarimboud. During the Second World War its inhabitants dug peat.
FRVillarsiviriaux
From the late 15th century pilgrims climbed to the chapel of Saint Theodulus at Villarsiviriaux, on the Gibloux. Grown too small, it was enlarged at the end of the 18th century.
FR · Merger 2020Villaz
After two wider projects failed in 2014 and 2015, La Folliaz and Villaz-Saint-Pierre merged on their own and formed Villaz on 1 January 2020.
FRVillaz-Saint-Pierre
Villaz-Saint-Pierre has a major early medieval cemetery that is still in use today. Its parish, recorded in 1228, stretched from Lussy to the Fille-Dieu.
FR · Merger 2001Villorsonnens
Chavannes-sous-Orsonnens, Orsonnens, Villargiroud and Villarsiviriaux formed Villorsonnens on 1 January 2001. In 2014 the municipality refused to go further.
FRVuarmarens
At Vuarmarens an early medieval cemetery was laid out over Gallo-Roman buildings. The village took in Morlens in 1991 and Esmonts in 2006 before joining Ursy.
FRVuisternens-devant-Romont
The centre of a large parish as early as 1228, Vuisternens-devant-Romont has brought together nine former villages since 2004, from La Neirigue to Les Ecasseys.