Cressier
Origin of the name Cressier
The village appears in 1080 as « Crisei ». The name, formed with the suffix « -acum », refers to the estate of a certain Criscius or Crixsius. In German, Cressier is called Grissach.[1][2]
Founding of Cressier
Cressier grew up on a spur at the edge of the Bibera valley, probably on the Gallo-Roman route that linked the Lake Morat area to the Saane. Burchard, the first known member of the Cressier family, appears in 1080, and the family holds the village until the 13th century. In the 12th century the territory forms a small lordship, a fief of the Thierstein. Cressier has remained a mainly French-speaking and Catholic village in a German-speaking and Protestant area.[1][2]
History of Cressier
1080. Burchard of Cressier is mentioned together with the place « Crisei ».[1][2]
12th century. The territory forms a small lordship held in fief from the Thierstein.[1]
1228. A parish is recorded for the first time. Its right of presentation is tied to the lordship.[1][2]
1402. The church's dedication to St John the Evangelist is recorded.[1]
1442. The counts of Thierstein sell the village to the town of Fribourg, which secures the survival of Catholic worship and of the French language. Cressier belongs to the Hospital Banner until 1798.[1][2]
1464. St Urban's chapel, outside the village, is recorded. It is rebuilt in 1622, and perhaps again in 1697.[1]
1529. Having passed by marriage from the Cressier to the Bubenberg, then been sold and divided several times, the lordship comes to the Praroman. Fribourg claims sovereignty and criminal jurisdiction over it.[1]
1661. Jean-Ferdinand de Diesbach marries Anne-Elisabeth Python. The manor, whose main block probably dates from the late 16th century, is then remodelled. Its interior decoration is carried out between about 1665 and 1691.[1][3]
1691. A plan fixes the boundaries of the lordship of Cressier.[2]
1699. The Reynold family become owners of the lordship, in 1699 (or 1715). The manor passes to François de Reynold, a cousin of the Diesbach. The inhabitants gradually buy out the other feudal rights acquired by the family.[1][3]
About 1830. A dairy is built near the church. Rebuilt after 1854, it later serves as a school.[2]
1841-1844. Joseph-Fidel Leimbacher rebuilds the church of St John the Evangelist in neoclassical style.[1][2]
About 1868. The manor gains an oriel and a chapel tower.[3]
1898. The station of the Fribourg-Morat line is built. A new district with a hotel and middle-class houses grows up around it.[1][2]
1913. A new school in Heimatstil is built to plans by R. Spielmann.[2]
1937. A new dairy is built along the street.[2]
1974-1977. Fire strikes the manor in 1974. It is rebuilt and restored from 1975 to 1977.[2][3]
1980. The de Reynold family's ownership of the manor and its estate comes to an end.[1][3]
1992. The firm DiaMed, specialising in medical technology, sets up its headquarters at Cressier.[1]
1994-1998. The dairy makes Mont Vully cheese from 1994 and stops producing Emmental in 1998.[1]
Population of Cressier
Sources and references: [1][5]
| 1811 | 211 |
| 1831 | 359 |
| 1850 | 326 |
| 1900 | 350 |
| 1950 | 395 |
| 2000 | 729 |
| 2025 | 1'120 |
Historic sites in Cressier
De Reynold manor. A cultural property of national importance, the manor keeps walls of a 15th and 16th-century building, a north wing of the 18th century and the extension of about 1868. The entrance hall is painted in trompe-l'œil, the great drawing room has grisailles and an armorial fireplace dated 1691, and the library a ceiling with mythological medallions. The small drawing room holds a Renaissance stove with a tile bearing the Diesbach-Python arms of 1665, and a Louis XVI stove of 1781 bears the Reynold arms. An avenue of oaks leads to the manor.[2][3][4]
Church of St John the Evangelist. Rebuilt in 1841-1844, the neoclassical church, with its porch tower and bell turret, stands in its churchyard. It is listed as a cultural property of regional importance.[1][2][4]
St Urban's chapel. Recorded in 1464 outside the village, it was rebuilt in 1622.[1]
Château d'En-Bas. A small manor of the Reynold family built in the 1780s, a cultural property of regional importance.[2][4]
Communal oven and farmhouses. The village keeps a two-part communal oven of the early 19th century, a timber farmhouse of 1818-1821 and the farmhouses of Jacques Maillard and Benoît Farvagniez, both listed as cultural properties of regional importance.[2][4]
Station district. The small station and the Hôtel de la Gare date from about 1900. Three villas of the 1920s, two of them dated 1926 and 1927, complete the district.[2]
Remains in Cressier
Middle Bronze Age settlement. The first traces of settlement were found near the station, at the edge of the Bibera valley.[1][2]
Bois de Boulay burial mounds. Hallstatt-period burial mounds, discovered in 1971, lie on top of the wooded hill.[1][2]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Cressier (FR) » (Marianne Rolle, version du 14.10.2010)
- Inventaire fédéral des sites construits d'importance nationale à protéger en Suisse (ISOS), « Cressier », 2e version, 11.2003
- Inventaire PBC, fiche KGS 02003, « Manoir de Reynold », Cressier (texte du Guide artistique de la Suisse, SHAS)
- Office fédéral de la protection de la population, « Révision Inventaire PBC 2021 : liste cantonale, canton de Fribourg » (état au 1.1.2026)
- 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 Cressier
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