Auberge aux 4 Vents

Papered with an illustrated flock of birds, the entrance to the restaurant carries a mural by Fribourg artist Jean-Damien Fleury, based on engravings from Buffon's 18th-century natural history and coloured to mark which species still survive locally. It is a small, telling detail in a building with a long past. Built between the late 17th and early 18th centuries as a country house for a Fribourg patrician family, the manor once stood among roughly thirty such estates forming the city's wealthy rural belt. It passed through aristocratic hands and later the Burrus family before Res Balzli and Catherine Portmann bought it in 1997 and added a restaurant, opening it to the public as Auberge Aux 4 Vents. The estate was left to the Fondation Pays des Merveilles in 2019 and fully renovated in 2025, with its historic fabric kept intact. Eight rooms and one apartment sit within the old walls, each furnished individually with Wi-Fi and a television. Meals are built around seasonal, local produce, and a buffet brunch runs every Sunday. The restaurant opens onto a garden of old beech trees, extended by a terrace for warmer months. Bicycles are available for guests who want to explore further afield.