Swiss Highlights
Hauterive Abbey seen from a wooded slope to the south: the long white conventual buildings with brown roofs and the church spire occupy the far end of a spring meadow valley, surrounded by forest, with the abbey's gardens and farm on the right.

Fribourg

Regions

The canton of Fribourg brings together 6 places referenced on Swiss Highlights: 1 natural site, 1 heritage or cultural site, 4 villages and 0 towns.

Not to miss

Hauterive Abbey seen from a wooded slope to the south: the long white conventual buildings with brown roofs and the church spire occupy the far end of a spring meadow valley, surrounded by forest, with the abbey's gardens and farm on the right.

Cistercian abbey · Fribourg

Hauterive Abbey

Consecrated on 25 February 1138, suppressed in 1848, repopulated in 1939. Its towerless church, built between 1150 and 1160, has just come through a 2021-2025 restoration and reopened on 4 September 2025.

A vast golden reed bed of the Grande Cariçaie crossed by a calm water channel dotted with water lilies, which joins Lake Neuchâtel lined with a row of poplars; on the horizon, the hills of the Jura rise in tiers under a summer sky heavy with cumulus clouds.

Lakeshore marsh · Lake Neuchâtel

Grande Cariçaie

Eight intercantonal nature reserves cover about 3,000 hectares of reedbed, marsh and flooded forest. The landscape only exists because the Jura water correction lowered the lake by 2.7 metres between 1868 and 1891.

Farmyard in Grandvillard: a round-arched stone porch under a tiled lean-to roof, a climbing rose on a wooden pergola, and an old stone trough in front of a wrought-iron gate; in the background, the white, tile-roofed facade of the house and a peak of the Fribourg Prealps stand out under a summer sky.

Listed village · Gruyère

Grandvillard

Freed from mainmorte in 1388, the commune obtained its charter of liberties in 1439. The present church was consecrated in 1603, the bridge over the Sarine built in 1641. Since 2019, among the Most Beautiful Villages of Switzerland.

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Related collections

Best Swiss Villages members · “The 50 most beautiful sites” (Switzerland Tourism)

Hauterive AbbeyGrande CariçaieGrandvillardGruyèresLessocPraz
Interactive map — schematic view of Switzerland.
Hauterive Abbey seen from a wooded slope to the south: the long white conventual buildings with brown roofs and the church spire occupy the far end of a spring meadow valley, surrounded by forest, with the abbey's gardens and farm on the right.

Cistercian abbey · Fribourg

Hauterive Abbey

Consecrated on 25 February 1138, suppressed in 1848, repopulated in 1939. Its towerless church, built between 1150 and 1160, has just come through a 2021-2025 restoration and reopened on 4 September 2025.

A vast golden reed bed of the Grande Cariçaie crossed by a calm water channel dotted with water lilies, which joins Lake Neuchâtel lined with a row of poplars; on the horizon, the hills of the Jura rise in tiers under a summer sky heavy with cumulus clouds.

Lakeshore marsh · Lake Neuchâtel

Grande Cariçaie

Eight intercantonal nature reserves cover about 3,000 hectares of reedbed, marsh and flooded forest. The landscape only exists because the Jura water correction lowered the lake by 2.7 metres between 1868 and 1891.

Farmyard in Grandvillard: a round-arched stone porch under a tiled lean-to roof, a climbing rose on a wooden pergola, and an old stone trough in front of a wrought-iron gate; in the background, the white, tile-roofed facade of the house and a peak of the Fribourg Prealps stand out under a summer sky.

Listed village · Gruyère

Grandvillard

Freed from mainmorte in 1388, the commune obtained its charter of liberties in 1439. The present church was consecrated in 1603, the bridge over the Sarine built in 1641. Since 2019, among the Most Beautiful Villages of Switzerland.

View of Gruyères and its castle perched on a green hill surrounded by ramparts, with the snow-capped peaks of the Fribourg Prealps standing out on the horizon under a blue sky streaked with clouds.

Medieval small town · Fribourg

Gruyères

2,339 inhabitants, a castle shaped by eight centuries of building, a museum of Tibetan art and another devoted to H. R. Giger: Gruyères sits on a rocky spur, its territory ranging between 693 and 2,002 metres.

The village fountain of Lessoc, topped by a broad, bell-shaped shingle roof supported by four stone pillars, stands on the paved square in front of houses with green shutters and flower boxes; in the background, the Fribourg Prealps stand out under an evening sky streaked with pink clouds.

Gruyère village · Fribourg

Lessoc

Recorded from 1115, Lessoc broke away from the parish of Grandvillard only in 1643. Its church and its octagonal fountain of 1796 are built of the grey-white limestone veined with green quarried on the spot, the Lessoc 'marble'.

Seen from Lake Murten, the village of Praz lines up its red-tiled roofed houses at the foot of a terraced vineyard hillside; in the foreground, green reeds border calm water under an almost cloudless blue sky.

Winegrowing village of the Vully · Fribourg

Praz

Praz belonged to the lordship of Morat until 1484. Its patrician winegrowers' houses have earned the site a national heritage listing. Since 1981, the Vully grape harvest festival has been held there every year in late September.