Gruyere is famous for its cheese and its castle.
The château was formerly the regional seat of power, occupied from 1080 to 1554 by the nineteen counts of Gruyères, but was decimated by a fire in 1493 which destroyed virtually everything but the dungeons. The last occupants reconstructed the living quarters in a lavish Savoyard style; Michael, the final Count of Gruyères, ran up huge debts doing this and then fled, leaving his creditors – the governments of Fribourg and Bern – to divide up his lands between them. A rich Geneva dynasty, the Bovy and Balland families, bought the castle in 1848 and supported a number of artists in residence, including the French landscape painter Corot, before the cantonal government of Fribourg took over maintenance of the castle in 1938. To approach it, you must walk the length of Gruyères’s dipping, picturesque main street with its central fountain and quaint old houses on either side bedecked with hanging signs. A huge gate at the end affords entry to the castle grounds