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Villages / Fribourg / Broye district / Estavayer-le-Lac

Estavayer-le-Lac

Town Canton of Fribourg · District: Broye · 6'311 inhabitants (2015, former municipality of Estavayer-le-Lac, last figure before the merger)
Part of the municipality of Estavayer
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Estavayer-le-Lac

The town appears in 1156 as « Stavaiel », then in 1228 as « Estavaier ». In German it is called « Stäffis am See ». The meaning of the name remains obscure.[1]

Founding of Estavayer-le-Lac

The town stands on a height of 430 to 460 metres above the south shore of Lake Neuchâtel, where lake villages followed one another from the Neolithic. It takes shape in the 12th century around the lords of Estavayer, vassals of the bishop of Lausanne, and probably began as an episcopal foundation. In the 13th century the family splits into three branches, each with its own castle in the town. District capital and regional market, Estavayer-le-Lac is now part of the municipality of Estavayer (merger of 2017).[1][2][6]

History of Estavayer-le-Lac

4th-3rd millennium BC. A Neolithic village stands on the shore near the port of La Tuillère. The site is explored in 1857 and partly excavated again in 1969.[1]

11th-9th century BC. In the late Bronze Age the villages of Pianta II and Les Ténevières line the shore. Craftsmen cast pins, rings and knives there until the pile-dwelling villages are abandoned around 850 BC.[1][6]

1156. The place is recorded as « Stavaiel ». In the 12th century Renaud, lord of Estavayer, and his son Conon hold an independent lordship, with a first castle on the Motte-Châtel.[1][2][6]

1228. The parish of « Estavaier » appears in the deanery of Avenches, under the patronage of the bishop of Lausanne. Its church is then a Romanesque building.[1][3]

Around 1240. Guillaume and Renaud II, sons of Conon, divide the lordship. The castle and the borough are mentioned from 1230, and the lords, vassals of the bishop of Lausanne, pay homage to the counts of Savoy in 1244.[1][2][6]

1285 (or 1284). Pierre d'Estavayer and his brother Guillaume build Chenaux castle north of the town, on the Savoyard square plan. Its wide ditches gave it its name. The Savoy castle rises to the south around 1300.[2][5][6]

1316-1317. Guillaume d'Estavayer, archdeacon of Lincoln, founds the Dominican convent. The nuns arrive in 1317, and the community still lives in the town.[1][2]

1349-1350. Guillaume IV d'Estavayer sells his share of the lordship, with the so-called Savoy castle, to Isabelle de Chalon, lady of Vaud. In 1350 she grants the town a charter of franchises that already mentions a Council.[1][2][6]

1379-1525. Jean Griset and Perrot Wuillemin begin the choir of the collegiate church of Saint-Laurent. The nave follows from 1437, the vaults in 1501-1502, and Peter and Jakob Ruffiner complete the bell tower in 1524-1525.[3][8]

1432-1443. Humbert, bastard of Savoy, co-lord since 1421, buys Chenaux from Anselme d'Estavayer in 1432 and turns it into a fortress, with a curtain wall and two brick towers. He dies in 1443 before the interior is fitted out and is buried in the choir of Saint-Laurent.[1][5][6]

1475. On 27 October, during the Burgundian Wars, the Confederates take the town. Claude d'Estavayer is killed and Chenaux castle is set on fire. The guards of the tower since called the tour de la Trahison (Treason Tower) had left their post.[1][4][6]

1488 (ou 1478). Fribourg installs its castellan in Chenaux castle, which becomes the residence of its officials.[1][5][6]

1536. After the conquest of the Pays de Vaud, the castellany becomes a Fribourg bailiwick. The bailiff is also avoyer (mayor) and presides over the town Council.[1]

1632-1635. The Estavayer family dies out in 1632, and Fribourg becomes sole lord of the town in 1635. A customary law of its own follows for Estavayer in 1671.[1][6]

1777. The Fabrique-Neuve of Cortaillod opens a branch for printed calicoes. About a hundred women brush-painters work there until the end of the century.[1][2]

1827-1847. The Jesuits run a college in the town. Their boarding school, built in 1826-1828, becomes the district hospice in 1882 and later the intercantonal hospital of the Broye.[1][2]

1877. The Payerne-Yverdon railway reaches Estavayer, which gets its station.[1][2]

1879. The Jura water correction lowers the lake by more than two metres. Hundreds of piles from the lake villages come to light, and the port built in 1857 becomes unusable.[2][6]

2012. Font merges with Estavayer-le-Lac on 1 January, under a law of 4 November 2011.[1][9]

2017. On 1 January Estavayer-le-Lac joins Bussy, Morens, Murist, Rueyres-les-Prés, Vernay and Vuissens to form the municipality of Estavayer.[1][10]

Population of Estavayer-le-Lac

Sources and references: [1][10][11]

Population of Estavayer-le-Lac
18501'323
19001'636
19502'452
20004'437
20105'554
20136'094
20156'311

Historic sites in Estavayer-le-Lac

Collegiate church of Saint-Laurent. Gothic church built from 1379 to 1525 on the site of a Romanesque one. Mattelin Vuarser carves the stalls in 1521-1525 and Jean-François Reyff the Baroque high altar in 1638-1640. The four antiphonaries bought in 1530 from the chapter of Saint-Vincent in Berne are kept here, and the bell ringer lived in the tower until 1945.[3][8]

Chenaux castle. Built from 1285 and fortified by Humbert of Savoy from 1432, the castle belongs to the State of Fribourg and houses the prefecture. The keep, the only one of the three original towers still standing, can be visited in season.[2][5]

Dominican convent. Founded in 1316, the convent is still inhabited. Its funerary chapel of the Trinity dates from 1423-1425, and the nearby Dominican gate, from the 14th century, is flanked by a large tower built from 1443 to 1467.[1][2][4][6]

Walls and gates. The medieval walls keep the Camus gate, built after 1338 and painted with coats of arms in 1626, the Écureuil tower (1401-1403), the Lombardy tower (1474) and the Treason Tower, rebuilt in 1479. The Thiolleyres gate, which led to the main harbour, was rebuilt identically in 1956.[4]

Grenette. Former grain hall in Neoclassical style, built in 1819-1825 on the Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville. It houses the administration of the municipality of Estavayer.[2][10]

Museum and its frogs. Opened in May 1927, the museum displays 108 frogs stuffed in the mid-19th century by François Perrier, a former non-commissioned officer at the Vatican until 1848. They act out scenes of local life, such as an election banquet or a school class.[7]

Remains in Estavayer-le-Lac

Lake-dwelling sites. The shore villages of La Tuillère, Pianta II and Les Ténevières, reported from 1856, were plundered in the 19th century and their finds scattered among museums in Switzerland and abroad. A dugout canoe was found beneath Chenaux castle.[1][6]

Hallstatt dagger. Recovered from the lake in the 1950s, this iron dagger of 650-550 BC is made of 30 riveted parts, and its sheath of 25. It was probably an offering.[1]

La Motte-Châtel. In the heart of the town, this fortified hill is inhabited in the early Iron Age. In the 12th century it carries the first castle of the lords of Estavayer, abandoned and then destroyed at the end of the 13th century.[1][2][6]

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Estavayer-le-Lac » (Denis Ramseyer, Stefan Jäggi, version du 05.05.2017)
  2. Inventaire fédéral des sites construits d'importance nationale (ISOS), « Estavayer-le-Lac » (n° 1484)
  3. Inventaire suisse des biens culturels (PBC), « Collégiale St-Laurent », d'après le Guide artistique de la Suisse (SHAS)
  4. Inventaire suisse des biens culturels (PBC), « Fortifications d'Estavayer-le-Lac », d'après le Guide artistique de la Suisse (SHAS)
  5. Fribourg Région, « Chenaux Castle »
  6. Estavayer-le-Lac / Payerne Tourisme, « Estavayer-le-Lac, ville médiévale : circuit historique » (2017)
  7. Fribourg Région, « Musée d'Estavayer-le-Lac et ses grenouilles »
  8. Fribourg Région, « Saint-Laurent Collegiate Church »
  9. État de Fribourg, Recueil systématique (RSF 141.1.2), « Liste chronologique des fusions, divisions et changements de nom des communes »
  10. Commune d'Estavayer, « Journal d'Estavayer » n° 0
  11. Conseil d'État du canton de Fribourg, message 2015-DIAF-73 du 25 août 2015 accompagnant le projet de loi relatif à la fusion des communes de Bussy, Estavayer-le-Lac, Morens, Murist, Rueyres-les-Prés, Vernay et Vuissens

Other villages near Estavayer-le-Lac

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