CALVARY AND FOUNTAIN

13

Rue du Bourg 47

The house of Girard de Chalamala (died around 1349), jester of Count Peter IV of Gruyère, dates back to 1334 and was rebuilt in 1510; the roof frame is from 1701. The frontage is dated 1531 and is from the late Gothic–Renaissance transition period. The house has a bel étage, richly framed in hard plaster, which is among the most beautiful of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland. The building was reconstructed in the Swiss Village of the National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896. With its medieval tavern, it was the highlight of the Village. Owned by Victor Tissot, founder of the Musée gruérien, the house in the Rue du Bourg inspired the Genevan painter Francis Furet (1842–1919), who decorated it with murals. Furet regularly visited Gruyères Castle from 1890 onwards.