Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2003

Alison's late summer visit, with castles, caves, and an inch of snow

Morat / Murten

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

A visit to the medieval city with daughter Alison and her fellow astrophysicist Satoki, 29 September 2003

The village is offically named Murten, the German form (76% of the population of ca.6,000 speak German), but as it's on the Swiss linguistic frontier (the "Rösti Curtain"), it's also referred to by its French name: Morat (pron. 'more-ah').

There are meso- and neolithic lakedweller remains here, as throughout the Three Lakes district, but the settlement is first attested as a 'lakeside fortress' in AD 515.

The Berntor, on the Hauptgasse

The Couronne Hotel on the Rathausgasse

The city wall, or Ringmauer

City rooves and the Lake of Morat beyond

Another view of the city wall looking northeastward

Dad (photo by Alison)

The Schloss Murten, or Morat castle from the Savoyard era

Another view of the Schloss

The steeple of the "French church". On the far side of the lake, the end of the lake and the canal de la Broye to the Lake of Neuchâtel.

The cinema theatre in the old Fire Station

Street scene

The Berntor

The Berntor on the Hauptgasse, or High Street

The Schloss Murten

The Berntor city gate

Across the lake

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