Murten to
Avenches

We set off from Murten along the lakeside and then cross country to the 12th century romanesque church in Donatyre, a small village near Avenches. This is decorated with copies of frescoes of the church Montcherand, one of Switzerland’s well-hidden Romanesque treasures.

The roots of Avenches go back to the Celts, when a tribe of Helvetians built a settlement on the hills. The Roman settlement of Aventicum was founded around 15-13 B.C., and grew to over 20,000 inhabitants. The canal-La Broye-which joins Lac Morat to Lac Neuchâtel is thought to be Roman in origin.

In 1074, the Bishop of Lausanne, Burkhard von Oltigen founded a new city on the site and named it Adventica, which became Avenche in 1518.