s part of the Canton of Saane and Broye. When the Republic collapsed, the Act of Mediation in 1803 gave the town to the canton of Fribourg.
Industrialization began in Murten in the early 1850s when Etienne-Ovide Domon founded a watch factory, which was later moved to Muntelier. The Petitpierre family operated an absinthe distillery between 1831�1901 and Oskar Roggen ran a winery from 1888-1913. Since 1855 Murten has had its own newspaper, the "Murtenbieter". In the 20th Century other industries settled in Murten; especially in the field of precision engineering, electronics and food. In 1973, the Swiss Federal Railways bought L�wenberg Castle and lands from the family de Rougemont, to establish a training center.
In 1856, a plan to run the Lausanne-Bern railway line through Murten was shelved and the line was rerouted through Fribourg. The loss of revenue from transportation affected Murten for almost twenty years. This changed in 1875-76 with the construction of the Pal�zieux-Murten-Lyss railway line. This first line was followed in 1898 with the Freiburg-Murten line and in 1903 with the Murten-Ins line. Steamship service between Murten and Neuch�tel began in 1835. The Bon Vouloir Hospital, opened in 1867 in Merlach and by the 1920s it became the district hospital. The tourism industry, began with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Murten in 1876
