Schmitten
Origin of the name Schmitten
The village appears in 1242 as « Schmitton », then as « Smitten » in 1447. The form « Othmarswile » is recorded in 1379. The municipal arms play on the name: they take up the attributes of St Eligius, patron of smiths, a blue pair of pincers and a blue hammer with a golden handle, on either side of a gold-crowned snake on a red field.[1][4]
Founding of Schmitten
Schmitten, north-east of Fribourg, comprises the village, the hamlets of Fillistorf, Lanthen, Ried, Tützenberg, Berg, Burg, Mühletal and Zirkels, the estates of Bunziwil, Hohe Zelg and Wiler and the farm groups of Betlehem and Vetterwil. In the Middle Ages the land belonged to the counts of Thierstein, the knights of Maggenberg and the lords of Zirkels. A chapel, dedicated first to St Othmar and later to the Holy Cross, is recorded from the 9th century. Long a hamlet of the parish and then of the municipality of Düdingen, Schmitten got its own parish only in 1894 and became a municipality only in 1922. Its convenient location on the Bern-Fribourg line then supported its economic growth.[1][2]
History of Schmitten
Mesolithic. Mesolithic people leave finds at the Fragnière-Moos.[1]
Hallstatt period. A burial mound is raised in the Ochsenriedholz.[1]
9th century. The St Othmar chapel is recorded.[1]
11th-12th century. Sunken huts house an early settlement.[1]
About 1412. The chapel is rebuilt. It will be rebuilt again in 1754.[1]
1442. Fribourg buys the feudal rights of the counts of Thierstein. Schmitten joins the Auge banner of the Old Territories.[1]
1521. A farm estate already exists on the site of the later Schlössli on Bahnhofstrasse, built around 1742.[3]
1664. The Tützenberg chapel is first recorded.[3]
1754. Hohe Zelg manor is built.[3]
1798. The new division into districts splits the old parish of Düdingen. Schmitten becomes a district seat with a district court until 1803.[1]
1831. The government's first attempt to make Schmitten a municipality fails because of opposition in Düdingen, and a second attempt fails in 1853. In the same year 1831 Schmitten becomes the seat of a justice of the peace district, until 2008.[1][2]
About 1860. Schmitten gets a station on the Bern-Fribourg line. The post office opens in 1870.[1]
1885. At the initiative of chaplain Johann Helfer a rectorate is set up.[1][2]
1894. Schmitten becomes a parish.[1][2]
1896-1898. The parish builds its church.[1]
1921. On Easter Monday the newly appointed Bishop Marius Besson consecrates the Berg chapel.[3]
1922. A decree of the Grand Council separates Schmitten from Düdingen and makes it a municipality in its own right.[1][2]
1996. The parish church is renovated.[1]
Population of Schmitten
Sources and references: [1][5]
| 1930 | 1'461 |
| 1950 | 1'576 |
| 2000 | 3'280 |
| 2025 | 4'303 |
Historic sites in Schmitten
Church of the Finding of the Cross. Parish church dedicated to the Finding of the Cross and St Joseph, built in 1896-1898 and renovated in 1996.[1]
Lehmann farmhouse. Farmhouse of 1815 with a gable front, arched windows and a central door, fronted by a double loggia with moulded columns. Its decorated facade is among the finest in the canton. The barn door has crossbeams fixed with wooden pegs.[3]
Hohe Zelg manor. U-shaped complex of 1754 with a six-bay main front and a broken hip roof, restored in 1937. Part of the original interior survives.[3]
Schlössli on Bahnhofstrasse. Manor house of about 1742 belonging to a farm estate already recorded in 1521, restored in 1981.[3]
Fillistorf country house. Built in 1860 by Louis Wuilleret, with closed cross gables and inset double loggias. The owners, the Python family, renovated it and added a chapel in 1982.[3]
Berg, Tützenberg and Mühletal chapels. The Berg chapel, built by the Brülhart and Emmenegger families, was consecrated in 1921. The Marian chapel at Tützenberg, recorded in 1664 and rebuilt in 1850 in a plain Biedermeier style, stands on land of the parish of Tafers. The Aebischer family rebuilt the Marian chapel in the Mühletal in 1912, and its small bell was cast in 1913 by the Grassmayer brothers in Buchs.[3]
Graben granary. Log granary of 1791 with Baroque decoration, built by the master carpenters Aeby brothers.[3]
Remains in Schmitten
Prehistoric finds. The Fragnière-Moos has yielded Mesolithic objects, and the Ochsenriedholz a Hallstatt burial mound. Bronze and iron work of the La Tène period has also been found in the municipality.[1]
Medieval sunken huts. Sunken huts (Grubenhäuser) of the 11th and 12th centuries reveal an early medieval settlement.[1]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Schmitten (FR) » (Marianne Progin Corti, version du 18.10.2012)
- Commune de Düdingen, « Wappen und Geschichte »
- Commune de Schmitten, « Sehenswürdigkeiten »
- Commune de Schmitten, « Wappen »
- 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 Schmitten
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