Bösingen
Origin of the name Bösingen
The village is recorded in 1228 as « Basens », which later became « Besingen » and then Bösingen. In French it was formerly called « Bésingue ». The theory of a Roman name « Bassiniacum » was disproved in 1997. In 1855 the post office introduced the name Grossbösingen against the municipality's wishes, and it was official from 1953 to 1962, when the Federal Council reversed the change.[1][2]
Founding of Bösingen
Bösingen is a clustered village, the old church centre of a large farming municipality, on a hill near the confluence of the Saane and the Sense, opposite Laupen castle. It is surrounded by the hamlets of Fendringen, Friseneit, Grenchen, Litzistorf, Niederbösingen, Noflen, Lischera, Richterwil, Riederberg, Uttiwil and Vogelshus. A Roman estate stood on the site of the present church, and settlement and worship continued from the early medieval cemetery in the villa to the village churches. After Bern and Fribourg were founded, Bösingen lay on the main road between the two towns, and its bridge over the Sense remained the only one until 1470.[1][2][3]
History of Bösingen
Hallstatt period. Graves are dug at Bodenholz.[1][2]
1st-4th century. A large Roman villa spreads over the site of the present church and schools.[1][2]
Mid-10th century. The royal house of Burgundy probably gives the church to Payerne abbey.[1]
12th-13th century. Much of the land passes from the lords of Fendringen, the knights of Maggenberg and the Praroman family to the Maigrauge convent and the hospital of Fribourg.[1]
About 1250. The Teutonic Order's commandery of Köniz, which obtained the right of patronage in the first half of the century, builds St James's church next to St Syrus's church.[1][2]
1285. St Syrus's chapel is first recorded.[1]
1442. With the sale of the Thierstein fiefs, large estates pass to the city of Fribourg. Bösingen belongs to its Old Territories until 1798.[1][3]
1447. At the first count the village has only ten families, or 35 people.[2][3]
1470. A new crossing of the Sense at Neuenegg costs Bösingen its role on the through road.[1][3]
1485. The right of patronage passes to the chapter of St Vincent in Bern, then in 1528, with the Reformation, to Bern.[1][3]
1788-1791. The old St James's church is demolished and replaced by the present late Baroque church (or 1788-1790). Its spire follows in 1793.[2][3]
1802. The first schoolhouse is built. It is demolished in 1962 to enlarge the cemetery.[2][3]
1816. On 1 November the great bell cracks. Its replacement, cast in 1818, is the largest in the district.[2][6]
1831. Bösingen formally becomes a political municipality.[1]
1868. Bernese settlers, present since the mid-19th century, open a Protestant school at Fendringen. A Protestant school for farm women follows at Uttiwil in 1929.[1]
1888-1890. The cantonal road Laupen-Tuftera-village-Riederberg is built.[2]
1889. After a Federal Supreme Court ruling the right of patronage finally passes to the canton of Fribourg.[1]
1904. The connection of Laupen to the Sense valley railway turns Bösingen further towards the Bern area.[1]
1977. Oberbösingen, with about 600 inhabitants and nearly a quarter of the area, moves to Wünnewil-Flamatt.[1][2]
Population of Bösingen
Sources and references: [1][2][7]
| 1447 | 188 inhabitants |
| 1831 | 880 |
| 1850 | 1'124 |
| 1900 | 1'438 |
| 1950 | 2'008 |
| 1970 | 2'317 |
| 1980 | 1'808 |
| 2000 | 3'117 |
| 2025 | 3'336 |
Historic sites in Bösingen
St James's church. Late Baroque parish church built in 1788-1791 on a tufa tower base of the late 15th or early 16th century. Its shingled spire dates from 1793, the high altar by Joseph Moosbrugger from 1824 and the organ by Moritz Mooser from 1844, restored to its original form in 1971. The ceiling paintings are by Gottfried Locher, two more by Raymond Meuwly (1971). The old St Syrus bell rings against storms. Cultural property of regional importance.[2][3][4]
Cemetery chapel. Holy Cross chapel built in 1836 in place of a 16th-century chapel, restored in 2004.[2][3]
Rectory. House built in 1576, extended in 1780, with a granary.[3]
Schlössli. Country house of 1755, with its park.[3]
Vogelshus manor house. Built in 1757 for Simon-Nicolas Lenzburger (1717-1806), made Count de Lenzbourg in 1783 by Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, and attributed to Johann Paulus Nader. It served as a model for Fribourg manor houses in the second half of the 18th century. Cultural property of national importance.[4][5]
Friseneit manor house. Manor house of the Praroman family, cultural property of regional importance.[4]
Village centre. Listed in the federal inventory of sites of national importance. Around the church stand the old parish inn of 1837 and the new neo-Gothic one of 1903.[2][3]
Remains in Bösingen
Roman villa and early medieval cemetery. The ground beneath the village, cultural property of national importance, holds a Gallo-Roman villa, an early medieval cemetery and a former church. The Roman finds range from the 1st to the 4th century. A Roman fort, an outpost of Aventicum, may have stood on the site of the churchyard.[1][2][3][4]
St Syrus's church. Pilgrimage church recorded in 1285, next to St James's, demolished in 1890.[1][2]
Legends of Bösingen
The largest bell in the district. After their great bell cracked in 1816, the people of Bösingen wanted one larger than that of Tafers, the largest in the district, whose measurements nobody would give them. Two men crept into the Tafers belfry and measured the rim of the bell with a string marked by a knot. Spotted on the square, they were invited to the St Martin inn, where they were made to talk while a Tafers man secretly cut off a piece of the string. Home with the shortened measure, they added a margin and ordered the bell. Parish priest Moritz Schwaller wrote down this oral tradition. The Bösingen bell, slightly smaller in girth, is taller than the one in Tafers.[6]
The founders of St Syrus. Tradition has it that King Rudolf and Queen Bertha of Burgundy, who had built Laupen castle across the Sense around 930, also had St Syrus's church built around 935.[2]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Bösingen » (Jean-François Steiert, version du 07.01.2003)
- Commune de Bösingen, « Geschichte »
- Inventaire fédéral des sites construits d'importance nationale (ISOS), « Bösingen »
- Office fédéral de la protection de la population, « Révision Inventaire PBC 2021 : liste cantonale, canton de FR » (état au 1.1.2026)
- Inventaire suisse des biens culturels d'importance nationale (PBC), fiche KGS 01959, « Herrenhaus de Lenzbourg », d'après le Guide artistique de la Suisse (SHAS)
- Commune de Bösingen, « Wie Bösingen zur grössten Glocke im Bezirk kam » (récit de Moritz Schwaller, Freiburger Nachrichten, 25.11.1994)
- Service de la statistique du canton de Fribourg (SStat), « Population des communes, de 1900 à 2025 » (T01-02-03), population résidante permanente au 31.12.2025
Other villages near Bösingen
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