The Visitation Sisters arrived from Besançon in 1635, fleeing the Thirty Years' War and seeking an asylum, which Fribourg offered them first in a building outside the walls and then in a house belonging to a patrician family of the city, in the Rue de Morat, where they have remained ever since. Without touching this building, they decided to build a church and a set of annex buildings according to plans drawn up by Jean-François Reyff, with the church facing the rue de Morat. Repaired and transformed to varying degrees in the following centuries, the monastery underwent several restorations in the 20th century.
The church is a valuable example of Jean-François Reyff's work, with its central plan and the juxtaposition of Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance styles. A baroque façade overhanging the street opens through an oak door surmounted by a sculpted group (the Visitation by Jean-François Reyff) onto the church, which has a Greek cross plan. Inside, the rich pavement evokes the arms of the Visitation order. The dome is topped by a lantern supported by classical columns, but the star vaults are Gothic. The niches with shells contain statues of apostles, saints (17th-19th c.): The railings are from 1680. The high altar has a remarkable tabernacle by Jean-François Reyff (1656). The painting is a copy of a Visitation from the mid 17th century. The side altars are accompanied on the right by paintings representing Saint Francis of Sale (founder of the order) and Saint Joan of Chantal; on the left, Saint Mary Margaret (1864). The organ is by Aloys Mooser (1826). The nuns' choir is on the left.
Rue de Morat 16
1700 Fribourg
+41 26 347 23 40
