Canton of Fribourg

The canton of Fribourg, also called the canton of Freiburg, lies in western Switzerland and takes its name from its capital city of Fribourg. It is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of its citizens and German by a little more than a quarter, and both are official languages. Significant traces of prehistoric settlement have been found on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Morat. The canton joined the Swiss Confederation in 1481, its area made up of lands acquired by the capital, and it reached its present extent in 1803 when Murten, known in French as Morat, was acquired. In 1846 it joined the separatist league of Catholic cantons called the Sonderbund, and its troops surrendered to the federal army the following year.