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Villages / Fribourg / Gruyère district / Château de Gruyères

Château de Gruyères

Site Canton of Fribourg · District: Gruyère · Uninhabited site, museum (municipality of Gruyères)
Part of the municipality of Gruyères
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Legends Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Château de Gruyères

The castle bears the name of Gruyères, recorded in 1138-1139 as « de Grueri ». The crane on the counts' arms has its own legend, that of the first count, Gruérius.[1][3]

Founding of Château de Gruyères

The counts of Gruyère built the castle on the hill that commands the upper Sarine valley, and the small town grew up around it. The oldest parts go back to the early 13th century. As vassals of Savoy, the counts gave their fortress the shape of a « carré savoyard », with a large free-standing round tower at the south-east corner. Nineteen counts are recorded from the 1070s, and the line ranks among the longest-lasting European dynasties of the Middle Ages. From Gruyères they held lands on both sides of the Sarine and the lordships of Palézieux, Oron and Aubonne.[1][2][3][4]

History of Château de Gruyères

1244. The fortress first appears in the archives, when Count Rudolph III pays homage to Peter II of Savoy.[3][4]

1270-1282. Under Peter III and the Savoyard administration, the castle is built on the model of the carré savoyard.[2]

1476-1540. Counts Louis and François II have the esplanade and the chapel laid out and the living quarters remodelled. Stone galleries and a stair tower turn the stronghold into a lordly residence.[2][3][4]

1493. A fire strikes the castle, and several parts are then rebuilt.[1]

1554. Deep in debt, Count Michel surrenders his property to his creditors, Bern and Fribourg.[3][4]

1555-1798. Fifty-two Fribourg bailiffs govern the former county from the castle. They extend the alpine pastures and have the cheese exported as far as Lyon, by Lake Geneva and the Rhône.[2][3][4]

1685-1686. Master Cuen paints the Bailiffs' Hall, the first of the baroque fittings commissioned by the bailiffs, continued in 1731-1771.[2][3]

1746-1747. The castle moat is filled in.[2]

1798-1848. Seven prefects of the district of Gruyères succeed the bailiffs. In 1848 the prefecture moves to Bulle and the castle, judged too costly, is put up for auction.[2][3][4]

1849. The State of Fribourg sells the castle to the Bovy family of Geneva. The brothers John, Daniel and Antoine make it their summer residence.[1][2][3][4]

1852-1862. Daniel Bovy, a former pupil of Ingres, directs a romantic restoration and has the troubadour decoration of the Knights' Hall painted.[2][3]

1857. Camille Corot and Barthélemy Menn paint several landscapes together. Corot produces the four medallions of the salon that bears his name.[2][3]

1861. Through marriage the castle passes to the Balland family, watchmaking industrialists. Louis-Émile Balland, John Bovy's son-in-law, carries on the Bovys' work.[1][2][3]

1938. The State of Fribourg buys the castle back from the Balland family (in 1939, according to another source) and turns it into a history museum, open to the public in 1939.[1][2][3][4]

1938-1948. Edmond Lateltin directs the restoration of the castle.[2]

1978-1997. The museum is redesigned.[2]

1993. The canton entrusts the castle's conservation and management to the Fondation du Château de Gruyères.[3]

2025. The castle welcomes 188'639 visitors. It is the second most visited castle in Switzerland.[3]

Historic sites in Château de Gruyères

Living quarters and keep. The castle keeps its carré savoyard plan. Two bronze shields by Patrick Woodroffe, from 1997 and 1999, adorn the keep. The whole, with the lodge, the chapel of Saint-Jean and the enclosure, is a cultural property of national importance.[2][5]

Museum rooms. The Knights' Hall shows a painted cycle on the golden age of the counts and the legends of the region. The Corot salon keeps its four medallion landscapes of 1857, and a music room a fortepiano of around 1835 built by Johann Wilhelm Braschoss for Franz Liszt. The black velvet copes on display were taken from Charles the Bold at the battle of Murten (Morat) in 1476.[2][3]

Chapel of Saint John the Baptist. Housed in a tower from the second half of the 15th century, the counts' chapel is dated 1480. It keeps wall paintings attributed to Hans Offleter the Elder (1560), stained glass attributed to Jean de Bolaz the Younger (1480-1493) and a small Renaissance altarpiece of around 1530.[1][2]

Enclosure and outbuildings. The reception occupies the former bailiffs' stable, with a tufa window of around 1350 and a roof frame of 1564. In the courtyard, a well under a small tufa shelter bears the date 1752 and the name of Nicolas Gachet. The old arsenal, of around 1553-1555, was raised in 1570 and given wooden galleries in 1586-1587. To the east lie the former refuge enclosure of the late 15th century, with its five-sided powder tower, and a French-style garden.[2][3]

Legends of Château de Gruyères

Gruérius and the crane. Legend has it that the first count, Gruérius I, saw a crane circling above the hill and chose the bird as his emblem. In the 19th century the Bovys and Louis-Émile Balland nurtured the castle's legend, which stories, guidebooks, postcards and popular festivals spread at the end of the century.[3]

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Gruyères (commune) » (Jean-Marc Purro, version du 24.07.2006)
  2. Inventaire suisse des biens culturels (PBC), fiche « Château des comtes de Gruyère » (KGS 02192), texte du Guide artistique de la Suisse (SHAS)
  3. Château de Gruyères, « Art, histoire & légendes », dossier de presse (2026)
  4. Château de Gruyères, « Eight centuries of history »
  5. Office fédéral de la protection de la population, « Révision Inventaire PBC 2021 : Liste cantonale Canton de FR » (état au 1.1.2026)

Other villages near Château de Gruyères

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