GRUYERE (Ger. Greyerz)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 642 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GRUYERE (Ger. Greyerz) , a

district

DISTRICT

in the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-eastern portion of the Swiss

canton

of Fribourg, famed for its cattle and its cheese, and the

original

ORIGINAL

home

of the " Ranz des Vaches," the melody by which the herdsmen

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

their cows

home

at milking time. It is composed of the middle reach (from Montbovon to beyond Bulle) of the Sarine or Saane valley, with its tributary glens of the Hongrin. (left), the Jogne (right) and the Treme (left), and is a delightful

pastoral

PASTORAL (from Lat. pastor, a shepherd)

region (in 1901 it contained 17,364 cattle). It forms an administrative

district

DISTRICT

of the

canton

of Fribourg, its population in 190o being 23,111, mainly French-speaking and Romanists. From Montbovon (11 m. by rail from Bulle) there are mountain railways leading S.W. past Les Avants to Montreux (14 M.), and E. up the Sarine valley past Chateau d'Oex to Saanen or Gessenay (14 m.), and by a tunnel below a low pass to the Simme valley and Spiez on the Lake of Thun. The modern

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of the district is the small town of Bulle [Ger. Boll], with a 13th-century castle and in 1900 3330 inhabitants, French-speaking and Romanists. But
11
the historical

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

is the very picturesque little town of Gruyeres (which keeps its final " s " in order to distinguish it from the district), perched on a steep hill (S.E. of Bulle) above the left bank of the Sarine, and at a height of 2713 ft. above the sea-level. It is only accessible by a rough carriage road, and boasts of a very fine old castle, at the foot of which is the solitary street of the town, which in 1900 had 1389 inhabitants.
The castle was the seat of the

counts

COUNTS

of the Gruyere, who are first mentioned in 1073. The name is said to come from the word gruyer, meaning the officer of woods and forests, but the

counts

COUNTS

bore the canting arms of a crane (grue), which are seen all over the castle and the town. That valiant family ended (in the legitimate line) with

Count

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

Michel (d. 1575) whose extravagance and consequent indebtedness compelled him in 1555 to sell his domains to Bern and Fribourg. Bern took the upper Sarine valley (it still keeps Saanen at its head, but in 1798 lost the Pays d'En-Haut to the canton du Leman, which in 1803 became the canton of Vaud). Fribourg took the rest of the county, which it added to Bulle and Albeuve (taken in 1537 from the bishop of Lausanne), and to the lordship of Jaun in the Jaun or Jogne valley (bought in 15021504 from its lords), in order to form the present administrative district of Gruyere, which is not co-extensive with the historical county of that name.
See the materials collected by J. J. Hisely and published in successive vols. of the Memoires et documents de la suisse romande . . introa. a l'hist. (1851) ; Histoire (2 vols., 18551857) ; and Monuments de l'histoire (2 vols., 18671869); K. V. von Bonstetten, Briefe fiber ein Schweiz. Hirtenland (1781) (Eng. trans., 1784); J. Reichlen, La Gruyere illustree (189o), seq.; H. Raemy, La Gruyere (1867) ; and Les Alpes fribourgeoises, by many authors (Lausanne, 1908). (W. A. B. C.)

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