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History of Gruyeres


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Graves from the Hallstatt era and La Tene era (325-250 BC) as well as other traces from the Bronze Age were discovered in Epagny. The remains of a Roman era villa from the 2nd-3rd Century AD and an Early Middle Ages cemetery were also found nearby. A Roman settlement was probably located on a hill in Gruy�res.

Gruy�res stands in the midst of the Fribourg green pre-Alpine foothills. The castle, towers above the medieval town. Gruerius, the legendary founder of Gruy�res, captured a crane (in French: �grue�) and chose it as his heraldic animal inspiring the name Gruy�res. Despite the importance of the House of Gruy�res its beginnings remain quite mysterious. Gruy�res is first mentioned around 1138-39 asde Grueri. The town developed beneath the castle, which the Count of Gruyere had built on top of the hill, to control the upper Saanen valley. By 1195-96 it became a market town with a central street and city walls. The town developed separately of the castle. In 1397 Count Rudolph IV of Gruy�res confirmed an older town charter that was based on the model of Moudon.

On June 22, 1476, Gruy�res participated in the Battle of Morat against the Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. With the help of the Old Swiss Confederacy, they routed the Burgundian army and captured three capes of the [Order of the Golden Fleece] which belonged toCharles the Bold including one with the emblems of Philip the Good, his father. At the time of the battle he was celebrating the anniversary of the death of his father.

The town church of Gruy�res originally belonged to the parish of Bulle. Count Rudolph III allowed the villages on the left bank of the Saane to built St. Theodul's church. When it was dedicated in 1254, it was the parish church of the new Gruy�res parish. The Counts of Gruy�res were buried under the altar of St. Michael in the church. It was mostly destroyed in 1670 and again in 1856 by fire, which only left the choir and tower undamaged. The renovated church
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