Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Fribourg's main museum of art and history occupies the Ratzéhof, a building on the edge of the old town that overlooks the lower levels of the city. The collection covers the history and art of the canton from prehistoric times to the present, but the medieval section is the real prize: altarpieces, sculptures, and devotional objects from the Gothic period that would be exceptional in any context.

The museum also has a good collection of Jean Tinguely's kinetic sculptures and related works — Tinguely was born in Fribourg, and the museum has maintained a strong connection to his legacy. Contemporary exhibitions rotate through the upper floors. The building itself is worth examining: it incorporates parts of older structures and offers views across the tiered old town that are hard to get from street level.

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A story
The museum houses an extraordinary collection of late-medieval religious sculpture from the churches and monasteries of the region — the kind of work that was often destroyed or dispersed during the Reformation in Protestant-controlled Switzerland. Because Fribourg remained Catholic, this art survived intact, and the collection is now one of the finest of its kind.