Gruyères

Gruyères grew beneath a castle overlooking the upper Saane valley. First mentioned around 1138, it became a walled market town by the end of the twelfth century. The counts of Gruyère held the hilltop castle above the settlement, while the town developed its own institutions; Count Rudolf IV confirmed its charter in 1397.

Men of Gruyères fought against Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at Morat in 1476. The last count, Michel, fell into debt and went bankrupt in 1554; his creditors, Fribourg and Bern, divided the county, and Fribourg's bailiffs took up residence in the castle. During the Thirty Years' War, nuns fleeing Besançon and Dole found refuge in the town. A community of the Visitation remained from 1639 to 1651 and ran a school.