History of the villages of the Gruyère district (Fribourg)
The 60 documented localities of the Gruyère 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 51
Albeuve
On 20 July 1876, fire destroyed more than 160 houses in Albeuve, along with the church and the presbytery. Only five houses were left standing.
FRAvry-devant-Pont
In 1798 the revolutionary militias of the area and the Vaudois set up a camp at Avry nicknamed « le poste invincible », before marching on Fribourg.
FR · Merger 2004Bas-Intyamon
Planned with four members, the lower Intyamon merger lost Grandvillard on 5 June 2003. Three months later, Estavannens and Villars-sous-Mont accepted it without a single vote against.
FRBotterens
The arrival of the Broc chocolate factory in 1898 took Botterens from 119 inhabitants in 1900 to 213 in 1920.
FRBroc
The Cailler chocolate factory settled in Broc in 1898 with 76 workers. By 1930 it employed 1'796.
FR · TownBulle
In 1195-1196 the count of Gruyère acknowledged the antiquity of the Bulle market, to the detriment of the one at Gruyères. On 2 April 1805 a fire destroyed almost the whole town.
FRCerniat
Cerniat saw the founding of La Valsainte Charterhouse in 1295, the only Carthusian monastery in Switzerland. The village, often ravaged by fire, lost its parish registers in the early 18th century.
FRCharmey
Around 1780, the Charmey firm of Pettolaz frères et neveux built up a capital of 500'000 to 600'000 écus by exporting Gruyère cheese as far as Lyon.
FRChâtel-sur-Montsalvens
In 1388 Count Rudolf IV of Gruyère freed the inhabitants of Châtel-sur-Montsalvens from mortmain. The village was divided between the house of Gruyère and the lords of Corbières.
FR · TownCorbières
In 1731, Catherine Repond, known as Catillon, was interrogated at Corbières castle. Condemned for witchcraft, she was the last woman of Fribourg executed for that crime.
FRCrésuz
Crésuz consecrated its church of Saint Francis in 1647. In 1667 a fire destroyed the village, and the church was rebuilt in 1670.
FREcharlens
In 1349 the lord of Everdes attacked the widow of a Fribourg avoyer. In reprisal Fribourg and Bern destroyed his castle, which overlooked the Sarine opposite Corbières.
FREnney
For almost 700 years, Enney belonged to the parish of Gruyères. It only got its own in 1947, when its chapel of 1619 became the parish church.
FREpagny
At the foot of Gruyères, Epagny yielded some fifteen La Tène graves in 1913-1915, when the foundations of the Duvillard orphanage were dug. Since 1963 the Gruyère airfield has occupied its plain.
FREstavannens
At the Fossard d'Enbas, Estavannens has yielded a cemetery of two Early Iron Age burial mounds. The village has held poya festivals since 1956.
FRGrandvillard
In 1388 the people of Grandvillard bought out the right of mortmain from Count Rudolph IV. Their village keeps the banneret's house, built from 1659 to 1666.
FR · TownGruyères
Gruyères was the capital of a county until 1555, after the bankruptcy of the last count, Michel. Within its walls, the little town had only 63 inhabitants in 2023.
FRGumefens
The cemeteries of Pra-Perrey and Sus-Fey have yielded La Tène warrior graves with sword and spear, and burials of women adorned with bracelets of iron, bronze and glass.
FR · Merger 2002Haut-Intyamon
In May 2000, 56 % of the people of the Intyamon preferred two municipalities to a single one. Albeuve, Lessoc, Montbovon and Neirivue formed the first, Haut-Intyamon, on 1 January 2002.
FRHauteville
From 1137 to 1232 the Premonstratensians of Humilimont ran a large farm at Hauteville, with a barn and a chapel. The church of Saint-Étienne took the place of this chapel around 1620.
FRIm Fang
To spare the people of Im Fang the walk to Jaun through the snow, the parish priest Johann Jakob Zurkinden had their church of Saint Joseph built, consecrated on 19 March 1871.
FRJaun
In 1635 Jaun tried to proclaim itself an independent republic. The failure cost the village its privileges, its common land and a levy of 35 écus a year until around 1800.
FRLa Roche
In the 13th century Alemannic settlers came to La Roche, the former « Zurflüh ». German was spoken here until the late 17th century.
FR · TownLa Tour-de-Trême
The counts of Gruyère founded La Tour-de-Trême facing Bulle, the land of the bishop of Lausanne. Of their castle, destroyed in 1349, only a square tower remains.
FRLe Bry
A hamlet of the old lordship of Pont, Le Bry gave its name to a municipality from 1970 to 2003, before the Lac de la Gruyère made it the boarding point for the Île d'Ogoz.
FRLe Pâquier
In 1539 the commoners of Le Pâquier, Les Chavonnes and Les Carrets joined together as a rural commune. They only separated from La Tour-de-Trême in 1827.
FRLe Pâquier-Montbarry
At the Montbarry baths, in use from the late 18th century, a Grand Hôtel Kurhaus is mentioned in 1892. The Sisters of the Retraite chrétienne bought the baths in 1928, and Carmelite nuns settled at Le Pâquier in 1936.
FRLes Sciernes-d'Albeuve
At the foot of the Dent de Lys, the hamlet of Les Sciernes-d'Albeuve keeps a Holy Spirit chapel of 1635 and the Rosaire, a 1930 preventorium designed by Guido Meyer as a seven-level pyramid.
FRLessoc
The covered bridge of Lessoc bears the date 1667, carved into an oak crossbeam. On the square, the octagonal fountain of 1796 is listed as being of national importance.
FRMarsens
Marsens owes its name to Mars: a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Mars Caturix, ruined around 260, stood on its territory.
FRMaules
As early as 930 the abbey of Saint-Maurice grants a certain Turimbert land at Maules, then called « Molas ». Its peat bogs, worked until around 1982, have been protected since 1991.
FRMoléson-sur-Gruyères
Dreamed up for 3'000 beds by the architect William Dunkel, the Moléson-sur-Gruyères resort opened its lifts in 1963, saw its creditors write off 90 % of their claims in 1976 and revived with the chalets of the Micheloud brothers.
FRMontbovon
At the start of the Jaman pass, Montbovon saw cheese caravans pass on their way to Lake Geneva. Its power station, founded in 1896, drew a carbide works, a tannery and a foundry.
FRMorlon
In 1948 the filling of the Lake of Gruyère swallowed the lower part of Morlon. The village had already been ravaged by fire in 1655, 1845, 1891 and 1900.
FRNeirivue
Neirivue burned three times, in 1791, in 1812 and on 19 July 1904. That day the fire destroyed almost the whole village, and the church had to be rebuilt.
FRPont-en-Ogoz
The municipality takes its name from a fortified small town of the 13th century, deserted in the 16th century. Since the Lake of Gruyère was filled in 1948, its ruins have formed the island of Ogoz.
FRPont-la-Ville
The Thusy bridge, built in stone over the Sarine in 1544, vanished under the water in 1948. Of the old church, recorded in 1148, only the choir remains, on the lakeshore.
FRPringy
A village in the municipality of Gruyères, Pringy opened one of the first demonstration cheese dairies in Switzerland in 1969. La Maison du Gruyère has welcomed visitors here since 2000.
FRRiaz
In 1253, during the war against Savoy, the Fribourgeois burned Riaz, a holding of the bishops of Lausanne. Since 1886 the village has housed the district hospital.
FRRomanens
A Burgundian cemetery at Romanens has yielded damascened belt buckles. Traditionally the village lived from tiles, straw plaiting and woodenware.
FRRueyres-Treyfayes
In the 15th century this Gibloux village forms a small lordship of its own, held in turn by the Esseiva, from 1585 by the von der Weid and then by the Gottrau.
FRSâles
In 1177 Pope Alexander III lists the « Cella de Sale » among the possessions of the hospice of the Great St Bernard. Since 1977 Bumotec SA has made machine tools here.
FRSorens
At Les Gauderons a heated Roman building decorated with wall paintings, dated 160 to 220 AD, has been uncovered. Sorens only became a parish in 1861.
FR · Merger 2014Val-de-Charmey
In May 2010, Crésuz and Châtel-sur-Montsalvens rejected a four-way merger. Cerniat and Charmey went ahead as a pair and became Val-de-Charmey on 1 January 2014.
FR · TownVaulruz
In 1322 Louis II of Savoy freed Vaulruz from mortmain and granted it the franchises of Moudon. Competing with Romont and Bulle, the place nonetheless remained a village.
FRVillarbeney
For almost a century, from 1887 to 1982, Villarbeney and Botterens shared a single municipal council, before merging for good in 2006.
FRVillars-d'Avry
At the foot of the Gibloux, Villars-d'Avry had only 33 inhabitants left in 1960. Its chapel of the Visitation was consecrated in 1793.
FRVillars-sous-Mont
At Villars-sous-Mont, the Dâda chapel, built in 1701, marks the site of the old parish church of Grandvillard.
FRVillarvolard
Catherine Repond, known as Catillon, a beggar from Villarvolard, was executed for witchcraft in Fribourg in 1731. The Fribourg Grand Council morally rehabilitated her in 2009.
FRVuadens
In 516 the Burgundian king Sigismund gave Vuadens to the abbey of Saint-Maurice. From 1914 to 1991 the Guigoz factory made powdered milk there.
FRVuippens
Vuippens, founded in the mid-13th century by Ulrich de Vuippens and one of the ten « towns » of the Gruyère, was burned in 1349 by Fribourg, helped by Bern, during the Everdes war.
Sites 9
Abbaye d'Humilimont
Founded around 1136-1141 by William II of Corbières, the Premonstratensian abbey of Humilimont was suppressed in 1580 and its property given to the Jesuit college in Fribourg.
FR · SiteChartreuse de la Part-Dieu
Founded in 1307 by Countess Guillemette de Grandson as a mausoleum for the counts of Gruyère, La Part-Dieu housed Carthusian monks until 1848.
FR · SiteChartreuse de la Valsainte
Founded in 1295 by the lords of Corbières, suppressed in 1778 and rebuilt from 1863 to 1868, La Valsainte is the only charterhouse still active in Switzerland.
FR · SiteChâteau de Gruyères
Recorded in 1244 and home of the counts until 1554, the castle of Gruyères then housed the bailiffs and, with the Bovy brothers, Switzerland's first artists' colony.
FR · SiteChâteau de Montsalvens
Fortified in 1274 by Peter II of Gruyère to guard the entrance to the Jogne valley, the castle of Montsalvens was wrecked by a Bernese raid in 1407.
FR · SiteChâteau de Vuippens
Built in 1777-1780 on the foundations of the keep of the lords of Vuippens, the bailiff's castle is regarded as the last seat of power raised under the Ancien Régime.
FR · SiteGorges de la Jogne
Below the Montsalvens dam, inaugurated in 1921 and presented as Europe's first double-curvature arch dam, the Jogne runs through its gorge down to the Broc power station.
FR · SiteÎle d'Ogoz
Castle of the lords of Pont, small town and chapel in the Middle Ages, the hill of Ogoz became an island in 1948, when the Lac de la Gruyère flooded the bend of the Sarine around it.
FR · SiteLac de la Gruyère
Created when the Rossens dam was filled in spring 1948, the Lac de la Gruyère holds up to 200 million m³ of the Sarine and turned the old town of Pont into an island.