Murten

Murten (French Morat; in Swiss German Ortsdialekt [mʊːrtə, moːrtə]; French Provençal Mora^{? /i}) is a political commune and capital of the lakeside district (French District du Lac) in the Swiss canton of Fribourg. Murten also includes the formerly independent municipalities of Altavilla (incorporated 1991), Burg (1975), Büchslen (2013), Courlevon, Jeuss, Lurtigen and Salvenach (all 2016).

Murten is the regional cultural and economic centre of the northern part of the canton. The medieval Zähringer town with a ring wall dating from the 13th to 17th centuries and a historic old town of national importance lies on Lake Murten, named after it, and was the scene of the Battle of Murten.

Geography

Murten lies at 453 m above sea level. 14 km north of the cantonal capital of Fribourg (as the crow flies). The town is situated on a 20 m high hill on the south-eastern shore of Lake Murten, east of the mouth of the stream coming from Münchenwiler, in the northern Fribourg Plateau.

The area of the 12.0 km² municipal territory comprises a section on the southern shore of Lake Murten (around 1.8 km of lakeshore) and the adjacent Molasse heights. The municipal territory extends from the lakeshore over a flat lakeshore edge strip and the Murten hill into the terrain depression to the south, through which the Münchenwiler village stream flows. To the south are the molasse heights formed by the glacial Rhone glacier with various drumlins, including the heights of Bois Domingue (526 m above sea level) and Aderahubel (516 m above sea level).

To the southwest, the municipal territory extends over the areas of Merlachfeld and Fin de Mossard to the forest of La Bourille, completely enclosing the Meyriez municipal area on the land side. To the east, the area extends to the plateau of Burg, into which the Burggraben stream has cut a deep erosion valley, to the Birchenwald (560 m a.s.l. ) and to the extensive forests east of Altavilla, namely Trimbley (up to 560 m a.s.l. ), Bloster (576 m a.s.l. ) and Murtenwald (at 582 m a.s.l. the highest elevation of Murten).

A narrow exclave of Murten, averaging around 500 m in width but almost 4 km in length, is located in the intensively farmed plain of the Grosses Moos. It extends from the Hanenmatt near Müntschemier southwards over the Grossen Kanal and the Biberenkanal to the Erlihof near Galmiz. In 1997, 19 % of the municipality's area was occupied by settlements, 27 % by woods and copses, and 54 % by agriculture.

The municipality of Murten includes the villages of Burg (518 m above sea level) and Altavilla (537 m above sea level) on the high plateau, the hamlets of Prehl (465 m above sea level) southeast of the town, Löwenberg (451 m above sea level) at the northern foot of the Aderahubel and Erli (461 m above sea level) slightly elevated on the southern edge of the Grosse Moos, some new residential quarters separated from the town and numerous individual farms. Murten's neighbouring municipalities are Greng, Meyriez, Courgevaux, Galmiz, Muntelier, Ried bei Kerzers, Gempenach, Ulmiz, Gurmels, Cressier, Courtepin and Mont-Vully, the area not belonging to any municipality, the state forest of Galm in the canton of Fribourg, and Münchenwiler and Müntschemier in the canton of Bern.

Population

Inhabitants

With 8259 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2019), Murten is one of the larger communes in the canton of Fribourg. Its population was 2645 inhabitants in 1900. It then temporarily decreased, only to increase steadily since then. The largest growth rates were recorded between 1950 and 1970 and after the development of new residential zones in the 1990s. Today, Murten's settlement area has grown together with that of its neighbouring municipalities of Meyriez and Muntelier without any gaps. A small part of Murten's industrial estate belongs to the municipality of Courgevaux.

Languages

Of the residents, 83% are German-speaking, 15% French-speaking and 0.5% Italian-speaking (as of January 2016). The official language in Murten is German, and municipal regulations are published in this language alone. Due to its location on the language border, however, a certain bilingualism is cultivated, and the municipality runs a French-language school in addition to the German-language school. Since 2013, when the SBB introduced the station name "Murten/Morat", this bilingualism has also been communicated externally.

In the 15th century, French was still the main language spoken in the city. However, not least in connection with the Reformation, German increasingly prevailed and gained the upper hand by the end of the 17th century at the latest. In the Reformed town of Murten, unlike in the Catholic Sense district, Berndeutsch is spoken, not Fribourg Senslerdeutsch.