Gruyère FR

FR is the abbreviation for the canton of Friborg in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries of the name Gruyère .

Gruyères (French: Gruyères)

State :	Switzerland Switzerland
Canton :	Canton of Friborg Freiburg (FR)
District :	Gruyèrew
BFS no. :	2135i1 f3 f4
Postal code :	1663
UN / LOCODE :	CH GYS
Coordinates :	572 661 / 159211 coordinates: 46 ° 35 '1 " N , 7 ° 4' 55" O ; CH1903: 572661 / 15921146.583608 7.081948 810
Height :	810 m above sea level M.
Height range :	681–2002 m above sea level M.
Area :	28.44 km²
Residents:	2200 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	77 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.gruyeres.ch
Town and Castle of Gruyères
Location of the municipality
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Gruyère is the German name of Gruyères ([ ɡʀɥiˈjɛʀ ]; Freiburger Patois Grevire ^?^/^I ), a political municipality in the Gruyère district of the canton of Friborg in Switzerland . The medieval town is an important tourist destination at the entrance to the upper Saane valley .

geography

Aerial photo (1964)

Gruyeres is 810 m above sea level. M. , 4.5 km south-southeast of the district capital Bulle (linear distance). The historic town extends on an isolated hill on the northern edge of the Alps, at the northeastern foot of the Moléson and at the point where the Saane (French: Sarine) leaves the Freiburg Alps.

The area of the 28.4 km² municipal area includes a section of the Saan Valley and the Freiburg Alps. The central part of the area is formed by the alluvial plain of the Saane ( 690 m above sea level ) on the edge of the Alps between Gruyère and Broc , from which the hill of Gruyère ( 828 m above sea level ) rises. The Trême mountain stream flows here from the west . East of the Saane, the municipality ends in a narrow corner, bounded by the Dent de Broc ( 1829 m above sea level ) in the north and Dent du Chamois ( 1830 m above sea level ) in the south, as far as the Motélon valley. The two distinctive rock peaks with the saddle in between represent a popular photo subject from Gruyères.

To the southwest of Gruyères, the municipality covers most of the catchment area of the Albeuve mountain stream , which rises on the northeast slopes of the Moléson. On the Malmkalk summit of the excursion mountain Moléson is at 2002 m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Gruyères. West of the Moléson, the wooded right flank of the Trême valley and the terrace of La Part Dieu also belong to the Gruyère area. In 1997, 5% of the municipal area was in settlements, 49% in forests and woodlands, 41% in agriculture and a little more than 5% was unproductive land.

The municipality of Gruyères also includes the two villages Epagny ( 715 m above sea level ) at the north foot and Pringy ( 750 m above sea level ) at the west foot of the city hill, the hamlet Saussivue ( 710 m above sea level ) at the south foot of the same Moléson-Village holiday complex ( 1132 m above sea level ) in the Albeuve valley at the foot of the Moléson, as well as numerous individual farms. The neighboring municipalities of Gruyère are Broc , Val-de-Charmey , Bas-Intyamon , Haut-Intyamon , Semsales , Vaulruz , Vuadens , Bulle and Le Pâquier .

population

With 2200 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Gruyères is one of the medium-sized communities in the canton of Friborg. 90.4% of the residents are French-speaking, 3.9% German-speaking and 1.2% Portuguese-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Gruyères was 972 in 1850 and 1389 in 1900. After a peak around 1920 (1711 inhabitants), the population decreased by almost 25% to 1302 inhabitants by 1950. Since then, population growth has been slow again.

economy

Trilingual information sign at the entrance to the village

Gruyères has always been an agrarian town. The agricultural products of the surrounding area were processed and sold here. In the past, the trade concentrated on cheese as well as small and large livestock. There were several mills and sawmills, and a powder factory since the 18th century. Straw weaving was also important until the beginning of the 20th century.

Today Gruyères offers around 750 jobs. With 9% of the workforce, agriculture has only a minor role in the employment structure of the population. Around 27% of the workforce is employed in the industrial sector, while the service sector accounts for 64% of the workforce (as of 2001).

Agriculture is still specialized in dairy farming and cattle breeding today . It supplies the raw materials for cheese production and meat processing. A show dairy has been located in Pringy since 1969 , in which the production of Gruyère cheese can be followed. Forestry also plays a certain role, but arable farming is rare. The companies in the secondary sector include joineries, carpentry shops, a workshop for precision mechanics and handicrafts. The service sector has numerous employees in the catering and hotel industries. The villages of Epagny and Pringy at the foot of the town hill have also developed into residential communities over the past few decades. Many workers are therefore commuters who mainly work in the city of Bulle.

tourism

Look up to the castle

Gruyeres is an important tourist destination in the canton of Friborg. The medieval town with its castle, which has an important collection and offers numerous cultural activities throughout the year, is a tourist attraction. Right next to it is the HR Giger Museum , which houses the fantastic art of Oscar winner HR Giger . The "La Maison du Gruyère" cheese dairy is located in Pringy, at the foot of the castle hill. Since 1998 a new cable car has been leading to the summit of the Moléson excursion mountain. The Moléson-Village resort is geared towards both summer and winter tourism.

traffic

The community has good transport links. It is located on the main road from Bulle to Château-d'Oex in the Pays-d'Enhaut . The next connection to the A12 motorway , which has been open continuously from Bern to Vevey since 1981, is around 9 km from the town center.

The station of Gruyeres FR

On July 23, 1903, the railway line from Bulle to Montbovon with a station in Pringy was put into operation. In the north of the municipality is the Epagny train station on the railway line from Bulle to Broc, which was inaugurated on June 24, 1912. The bus routes of Transports publics Fribourgeois from Bulle via Gruyères to Moléson-Village and from Bulle to Broc and Grandvillard , both via Epagny, ensure the fine distribution of public transport . The Gruyères airfield was opened in 1963 on the plain between Gruyères and Broc .

history

View from the castle to the castle chapel and Epagny

The earliest evidence of human activity in the municipality of Gruyères goes back to the Bronze Age and the Hallstatt Age . Traces from these epochs have been found near Epagny. A burial ground from the La Tène period (325 to 250 BC) and the remains of a Roman villa, which was inhabited in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, were also discovered near Epagny . The Gruyère hill was probably settled during Roman times.

The first written mention of the place took place in 1144 under the name de Grueria ; a settlement probably existed since the 10th century. The name Gruyères is probably derived from the heraldic animal of the crane (French: grue).

Gruyères developed on the hill below the castle of the Counts of Gruyères. This gave the place market rights. Disputes with the prince-bishops of Lausanne, the clergymen of the region, led to them hiving off the areas of Bulle, Riaz and Albeuve from the county and placing them under their direct rule. Bulle was now the market town of the region, and the small Gruyère lost its market rights in 1196. Together with the county, Gruyères came under the suzerainty of the Counts of Savoy in 1244. In terms of the church, Gruyères initially belonged to Bulle, until the Saint-Théodule church was built, which was consecrated as a parish church in 1254.

In the period that followed, Gruyères shared the fortunes of the county of Gruyères . In the course of the 13th century it received market rights again and in 1342 special rights. In 1397 the town charter was confirmed by Count Rudolf IV. Since the 15th century Gruyères gained a certain freedom under the counts. The residents could choose the Twelve Council, which ruled the city. The city became prosperous through trade in agricultural products. Until 1767 the road led into the upper Saane valley over the hill of Gruyères.

After the Counts of Greyerz went bankrupt in 1554, Greyerz came to the Friborg bailiwick of Greyerz in 1555 and became the bailiff's residence. In 1611 the town was ravaged by the plague , and within a few months there were over 140 victims. During the Swiss Peasants' War , Gruyère Castle was occupied by the Friborgs in 1653 because the townspeople stopped paying taxes to the town.

With the beginning of the Helvetic Republic , the Friborg bailiwicks were converted into prefectures, but Gruyères remained the capital of the Prefecture of Gruyères. Only with the entry into force of the new cantonal constitution in 1848 did the town lose its status as the district capital, to which the new Bull was designated. Today the merger of Gruyères with the neighboring town of Le Pâquier is up for discussion, which was approved by the population in a 2003 survey.

Attractions

Row of houses on Marktgasse

Old town

The historic town of Gruyères has retained its medieval appearance to this day. It is located on a hill that rises around 100 m above the Saane plain. The castle is located on the highest point of the hill, to the west is the small town, the floor plan of which is approximately 300 m × 100 m. A large part of the former enclosing walls is still preserved today. The fortifications in their current form were built in the 15th century; to the south is the square tower Chupia-Bârba (the core dates back to the 12th century), to the north-east is the gate kennel Le Belluard from the 15th century.

Marktgasse, the only street in the town, is lined with two rows of houses from the 15th to 17th centuries. Among them is the Maison de Chalamala from 1531, which bears the name of a well-known court jester of the 14th century. In the middle of the town is the Calvaire (Calvary) from 1705.

lock

The old count's castle towers over the small medieval town. Although the Counts of Gruyères are among the most important princely families in western Switzerland, their exact roots are not yet known. Nineteen counts are attested from the 11th to the 16th century. Michael, the last Count of Gruyères, ran into financial difficulties and went bankrupt in 1554. His creditors, the cities of Friborg and Bern, divided his county between them. The castle was the seat of the Freiburg bailiffs from 1555 to 1798, then the residence of the prefects until 1848. In 1849 it was bought by the Geneva family Bovy and later passed on to the Balland family. These owners used it as a summer residence and restored it together with their artist friends. In 1938 the state of Freiburg bought it back and set up a museum in it. A foundation has been looking after the building and presenting the collection since 1993.

A visit to the castle offers an overview of eight centuries of architecture, history and culture. The current system goes back to the years 1270–1280. The square floor plan corresponds to a construction principle often used in Savoy. A second phase of construction began at the end of the 15th century. Count Ludwig took part in the Burgundian Wars on the federal side in 1476. This military fame was to be reflected in the architecture: the outer courtyard with the chapel was redesigned, the octagonal stair tower in the inner courtyard was built and the residential wing was rebuilt. The castle lost its fortress character and became a stately residence. The baroque interiors of the 17th and 18th centuries date from the time of the bailiffs. From 1850 onwards, Camille Corot , Barthélemy Menn and other well-known painters created late romantic and historicist paintings ( knight's hall , Corot hall, etc.). Temporary exhibitions, a multimedia show on the history of the castle (since 2008) and various cultural activities span the arc to the 21st century.

Parish church

Gruyères Castle seen from the south

The parish church of Saint-Théodule, which was founded in the middle of the 13th century, stands on the southern slope below the castle, somewhat separated from the town. The church got its present form around 1860, when it was rebuilt after a fire. Only the front tower from 1680 and the choir from 1732 are older.

Chapels

Outside the city there are several chapels, including the Chapelle du Berceau (1612; restored in 1939) on the western slope of the hill of Gruyères, the Chapelle Sainte-Agathe (1811) and the Chapelle Sainte-Agathe-et-Sainte-Barbe ( 1823) in Pringy and the Chapelle Sainte-Anne (1740) in Epagny.

monastery

The former Carthusian monastery of La Part-Dieu, founded in 1307, stands above the Trême valley . It was closely linked to the monastery of La Valsainte and received its monks when Valsainte was abolished in 1778. La Part-Dieu was occupied by the French in 1798. In 1800 the monastery was the victim of a major fire; after that it was rebuilt until 1805. The Charterhouse was abolished in 1848, after which the monks moved back to Valsainte and brought this monastery back to life. The church and part of the convent buildings have been preserved, the cloister with the Carthusians no longer exists.

literature

AA.VV .: Patrimoine fribourgeois. Le château de Gruyères. Number 16, Friborg 2005.
Etienne Chatton, Henri Gremaud, M. Tschopp-Magni: Château de Gruyères. Villars-su-Glâne 1991.
Werner Meyer: Castles of Switzerland. Volume 9, Silva Verlag, Zurich 1981, pp. 72-73.

Web links

Commons : Gruyères - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Griers in the Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae (Matthäus Merian) - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 .

[1] Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 .