Murten () or Morat (; ) is a bilingual municipality and a city in the See district of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.
It is located on the southern shores of Lake Morat (also known as Lake Murten). Morat is situated between Neuchâtel and Fribourg and is the capital of the See/Lac District of the canton of Fribourg. It is one of the municipalities with a majority (about 75%) of German speakers in the predominantly French-speaking Canton of Fribourg.
On 1 January 1975 the former municipality of Burg bei Murten merged into the municipality of Murten.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 9 February 2013 It was followed on 1 January 1991 by the former municipality of Altavilla and on 1 January 2013 by the former municipality of Büchslen. On 1 January 2016 the former municipalities of Courlevon, Jeuss (Jentes), Lurtigen (Lourtens) and Salvenach (Salvagny) merged into Morat (Murten).Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 3 February 2016 On 1 January 2022 the former municipalities of Galmiz, Gempenach and Clavaleyres (Canton of Bern) merged into the municipality of Murten.
History The oldest archaeological traces of a settlement in the perimeter are from the Mesolithic (8200-5500 BC). The Mesolithic finds are mostly small flint shards for use in weapons or tools. These flints were produced mostly in the swampy lowlands east of the city at Murten-Combette and Murten-Ober Prehl. While many of these flint objects are in museums, the exact discovery sites were not properly documented and have been lost or covered by later excavations. Several other sites were discovered during construction of the A1 motorway in 1976–95. These settlements are from the Neolithic (5500-2500 BC) and the Bronze Age (2300-800 BC). Murten Pré de la Blanc was used in the Neolithic and middle Bronze Age, while the sites Murten-Lowenberg, Murten-Ober Prehl and Chantemerle 1 are from the Late Bronze Age. The cemetery at Lowenberg was used for more than a millennium, from the middle Bronze Age to the La Tène period. The nearby necropolis holds a number of Hallstatt era graves. The remains of a large Roman villa from the end of 1st or early 2nd century BC and a piece of a Roman road have also been found.
The town's name derives from the Celtic word moriduno, meaning "lakeside fortress" . It was first mentioned in 515 as a defensive place called "Muratum". In 1013, the area was fortified by King Rudolph III of Burgundy. The fortifications were attacked and occupied by Odo II of Blois-Champagne in 1032 during the conflict after Rudolph's death. Odo only held Murten briefly before Emperor Conrad II besieged and destroyed the castle. In 1079 Emperor Henry IV granted Muratum and other properties to the Bishop of Lausanne.
Murten was founded by Duke Berchtold IVMurten/Morat tourism-History of the city accessed 15 December 2011 of Zähringen or Landri de Durnes, the Bishop of Lausanne in either 1159 or during the 1170s or 1180s next to the fortress. Murten was first mentioned as a city in 1238. After his death the German emperor Frederic II recognized Murten as a "Free Imperial Town". At that time the emperor himself lived in the south of Italy and a small town north of the Alps was not his concern. It did not last long – in 1255 Murten fell under the protection of Count Peter of Savoy. When Philip I of Savoy refused to give Morat to him, King Rudolph of Habsburg seized it as a royal estate. After Rudolf's death Amadeus V of Savoy, bought the city again in 1291, but lost it to King Albert I of Germany again. The House of Savoy bought the city and surrounding lands again in 1310 for 4,000 marks of silver. This time the city remained under Savoy control. During this time, Murten began to develop alliances and ties with the surrounding Swiss cities. In 1245 they created a treaty with Fribourg, followed in 1335 with Bern.
A fire in 1416 led to rebuilding in stone.
On 22 June 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, laid siege to the place in an action known as the Battle of Morat. The town hung on for 13 days but finally was saved by the Bernese army. The enemy's army was destroyed completely — some 10,000 Burgundians were killed. Since then, Murten celebrates the victory every year on June 22.
From 1484 on, and for 300 years, Murten was ruled by the two cantons — Bern and Fribourg. In 1530, under pressure from Bern, Murten adopted the Protestant Reformation, after the preacher Guillaume Farel began to preach the new faith. Murten's Protestant faith often brought the city into conflicts with the more conservative, Catholic Fribourg.
During the second half of the 17th century the city grew wealthy on trade over the road from Bern to Vaud and along the Broye river to Yverdon. Most of the houses in the city were rebuilt with this wealth. Although Bern and Fribourg had already granted Murten permission in 1584 to form guilds, the coopers, carpenters, locksmiths and cabinet makers first formed their guilds in 1731. In the late 17th century a brickyard and a brewery were built outside of town.
Following the 1798 French invasion, under the Helvetic Republic Murten was part of the Canton of Sarine 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 Montelier . The Petitpierre family operated an absinthe distillery between 1831 and 1901 and Oskar Roggen ran a winery from 1888 to 1913. Since 1855 Murten has had its own newspaper, the "Murtenbieter", referring to the area around Murten. 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 Löwenberg 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 Morat 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 Palézieux-Murten-Lyss railway line. This first line was followed in 1898 with the Fribourg-Murten line and in 1903 with the Murten-Ins line, known collectively as the Fribourg–Ins railway. Steamship service between Murten and Neuchâtel began in 1835. The Bon Vouloir Hospital, opened in 1867 in Meyriez and by the 1920s it became the district hospital. The tourism industry, began with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Morat in 1876.
Geography
Murten/Morat has an area of . Before the mergers expanded the municipal borders, or 51.4% was used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.2% were forested. Of the rest of the land, or 21.6% were settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% were either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% was unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 40.4% is used for growing crops and 9.5% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The small medieval town lies in the Swiss "Midlands" on the edge of the Great Marsh, on a gentle hill ( above sea level) and on the shore of Lake Morat (or the Murtensee in German). Numerous attractions from a significant past have been well preserved here, such as the castle, the ring wall, the street scene and the arcades. Lake Morat is a smaller lake located in between Lake Biel and the lake Neuchâtel.
Mont Vully stands on the western side of the Seeland's largest plain and resembles a pearl gently placed among the three lakes of Murten, Neuchâtel and Biel/Bienne. Already long ago, the Celtic and Helvetic tribes appreciated the region's temperate climate and the local countryside's particular charm. Today, the Vully vineyards take up a large part of the south face of Mont Vully. The over 100 hectares of vineyards are facing towards Lake Morat.
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Lion rampant Gules crowned and armed Or on Coupeaux Vert.Flags of the World.com accessed 14-December-2011
Demographics
In December 2020 Morat had a population of . In 2008 19.3% of the population consisted of resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008 accessed 19 June 2010 From 2000 to 2010 the population increased at a rate of 11%. Migration accounted for 9.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14-December-2011
In 2000 most of the population spoke German (4,269 or 76.5%) as their first language, French was the second most common (716 or 12.8%) and Italian the third (108 or 1.9%). There were five residents who spoke Romansh.
In 2008 the population was 47.8% male and 52.2% female. The population was made up of 2,301 Swiss men (38.2% of the population) and 578 (9.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,571 Swiss women (42.7%) and 578 (9.6%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 1,315 or about 23.6% were born in Murten and lived there in 2000. There were 881 or 15.8% who were born in the same canton, while 2,088 or 37.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,109 or 19.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
In 2000, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) made up 23.1% of the population, while adults aged 20–64 years comprised 61.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) were 15.7%.
In 2000 there were 2,256 residents who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,638 married individuals, 346 widows or widowers and 338 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
In 2000, there were 2,394 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 801 households that consist of only one person and 143 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,349 apartments (89.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 232 apartments (8.8%) were seasonally occupied and 50 apartments (1.9%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.24%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Heritage sites of national significance The farm house at Erli 2, Murten's city walls, the Grosshaus at Hauptgasse 43, the Rathaus or town council house, Löwenberg Castle and the Old School House in Valvenach are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old city of Murten's and the village of Lurtigen are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
World heritage site An area of the prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlement at Segelboothafen is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps