Freiburger Voralpenweg

The Freiburger Vorlalpenweg leads in five one-day stages from the medieval town of Fribourg past picturesque Schwarzsee, into the Gruyère region, then along the Gastlosen chain to verdant Pays d’Enhaut and down to the balloonists’ Mecca of Château-d’Oex.

The long route through the city begins at Fribourg railway station. It passes St Nicholas Cathedral before heading out into the rolling countryside, where meadows, forests and villages alternate. Near Brünisried, the Buchenkapelle chapel stands directly beside the trail. Dedicated to St Anthony, the chapel in Oberholz was first mentioned in records in 1586. The route continues via Rechthalten and Plaffeien into the Fribourg Pre-Alps.

At Schwarzsee, the hike reaches the shore of the lake of the same name. The trail then climbs across open pastures and through forest to Jaun. South of the village, the mountain trail increasingly sets the character of the route; the rocky summits of the Gastlosen, including Rüdigenspitze and Wandflue, lie away from the trail but dominate the surroundings.

The trail continues in a steady succession of ascents and descents to the Jeu-de-Quilles pass. In the final third, it reaches its highest point near the Dent des Bimis at around 1,900 m. The route then loses considerable elevation across alpine pastures and through stretches of forest. The first houses herald the approach to Château-d’Oex; from there, the railway station is only a few steps away.