Pensier
Origin of the name Pensier
The village name remained attached to a branch of the Fribourg patrician family of Gottrau, the Gottrau de Pensier, whose fief was the manor.[2][5]
Founding of Pensier
Pensier is a village of the former municipality of Barberêche, on the west shore of Lake Schiffenen, now in the municipality of Courtepin. Its history is largely that of its manor. The Praroman family had been at Pensier since the 15th century, and the Gottrau began buying land there in the late 16th century. Through purchases and exchanges, the Gottrau gathered most of the territory in the 17th century and built the manor. The estate also had a chapel, a mill and a sawmill on the Sonnaz, and two farms.[1][2][3]
History of Pensier
15th century. The Praroman family is present at Pensier.[2]
Late 16th century. The Gottrau begin acquiring land at Pensier (according to another account, the land instead passed from the Gottrau to the Praroman in the 16th century).[2][3]
Late 17th century. The manor is built. At first it consists only of the present south wing, two storeys lower.[2][3]
1854-1864. The estate passes from the Gottrau to the Boccard (or at the end of the 19th century, by marriage and then inheritance).[2][3]
1898. Pensier gets a station on the Murten-Fribourg line.[1]
1903. After the second expulsion of religious congregations from France, the Boccard make the manor available to Dominican sisters from Bar-le-Duc, who take the name of Dominican Sisters of Pensier. They open the Institut Saint-Dominique, an international girls' boarding school. The architects Frédéric Broillet and Charles Albert Wulffleff add storeys to the south wing.[2][3]
1922-1924. Broillet and Augustin Genoud build the central block, with a chapel on the top floor.[3]
1959. The congregation becomes the Roman Congregation of Saint Dominic.[3]
1975. The ageing sisters close the boarding school and from then on host spiritual retreats.[3]
2002. After the centenary mass, celebrated on 28 April by the nuncio Pier Giacomo De Nicolò, the last five Dominican sisters leave Pensier. The Verbe de Vie community, in the house since 1993, takes it over.[3][4]
2021. The Verbe de Vie sisters leave. The private Catholic school Saint-Nicolas occupies part of the house.[3]
2023. In July the diocese acquires the house, which becomes the Centre Saint-Dominique.[3]
Historic sites in Pensier
Pensier manor, Centre Saint-Dominique. The late 17th-century manor, enlarged in 1903 and in 1922-1924, overlooks a terraced park. The south front has a pergola on Tuscan molasse columns, probably from around 1840, and a small cellar keeps a Gothic-style doorway.[2][3]
Manor chapel. The original chapel, in line with the house and the stables on the east edge of the terrace, is fully preserved.[2]
Pensier station. Station on the Murten-Fribourg line, opened in 1898.[1]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Barberêche » (Marianne Rolle), version du 15.09.2009
- Swisscastles, « L'ancien manoir de Pensier (à Barberêche) »
- Centre Saint Dominique, Pensier, « Histoire »
- cath.ch (APIC), « Pensier : les Sœurs dominicaines tournent une page après un siècle de présence » (28.04.2002)
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Schaller, de » (Hubert Foerster), version du 20.09.2010
Other villages near Pensier
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