Little Rome

Waves of classical music cascade around the aisle and pews, sending me into a euphoric trance. I am listening to an organ concert at the Gothic St Nicholas Cathedral, dating back to 1283, in Fribourg, a Swiss town, that used to be the ‘Little Rome’ of medieval times, a Catholic hotspot in Protestant Switzerland. The antique organ is not any ordinary instrument. Musical greats like Liszt have played on it; with 7,800 pipes this 19th century organ was made by organ maker Aloys Mooser over a period of 10 years. Every rainbow hued stained glass window in the church is also an artwork worthy of a prize – they were designed by the Polish painter Jozef Mehoffer and made by local craftsmen in the Art Nouveau style between 1896 and 1936 with vivid Biblical images.

City of bridges

I walk with our guide Alicia Daguet, along the cobblestone lanes of Old town, passing 16th century fountains, lined with flowers, monasteries and churches. The town has more than two hundred Gothic facades – built from local molasses stone, with sloping tiled roofs, sometimes painted with murals. The old patrician townhouses have interesting details from shoe scrapers installed outside, to carved doors. The medieval fortifications built in the 13th century snake through the western part of the city with turrets, long passages and towers.
The town is on a rocky plateau surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides, which has acted as a natural defence over the ages. We ride the vintage funicular which is over a hundred years old, and works on the power of waste water and is a blessing to those with tired feet, navigating the steep streets of the town. The town is also called ‘City of Bridges’ with more than 14 bridges crossing the river and also acting as a linguistic divide between the French and German speaking sides. The oldest one is the timber covered Bern Bridge that leads to the street of the Blacksmiths. We walk down the 15-metre long ‘Rue des Espouses’ that links the city hall with the cathedral of Fribourg. This is where happy couples pass by after leaving the Cathedral. A board reads in French, “’Here is the street of the faithful wives and also the model husbands. The other side of the board says “Bridegroom, you good man, tomorrow it will be your wife who will be wearing the trousers in the end”.

Art walk

I visit the 400-year-old Ratze Palace, a 19th century arsenal and slaughterhouse, which now houses the Museum of Art and History. I go back in time marvelling at the displays of Church art from the 16th century and paintings, tapestries and sculptures that give me an idea of how important the town was in the Middle ages. A stone’s throw away is the Espace Jean Tinguely, which houses works by the Swiss artist known for his kinetic art installations that convey a deeper political message. The space also showcases sculptures by his artist wife Niki de St Phalle who made oversized women, animals and monsters out of polyester resin and painted them with bright acrylic paints!

Fribourg is also a food lover’s paradise – bakeries sell the local bread with saffron, called cuchaule, which is paired with sweet mustard. We have moitié-moitié cheese fondue, which combines Gruyères and Vacherin cheese, at Café Du Midi, decorated in a Swiss chalet style, where a waiter awes us with an impromptu rendition of a song in Romansh, Switzerland’s fourth language which many people are not familiar with. It remains etched in my memory for a long time to come.
Fribourg is a food lover’s paradise – bakeries sell the local bread with saffron, called cuchaule, paired with sweet mustard

Be sure to check out Urban Golf, an 18-hole course spread throughout the entire town