GRUYERE (Ger. Greyerz), a district in the south-eastern portion of the Swiss canton of Fribourg, famed for its cattle and its cheese. It is composed of the middle reach (from Montbovon to beyond Bulle) of the Sarine or Saane valley, with its tributary glens of the Hongrin, the Jogne and the Treme. It forms an ad ministrative district of the canton of Fribourg, its population being mainly French-speaking and Romanists. From Montbovon (II m. by rail from Bulle) there are mountain railways leading S.W. past Les Avants to Montreux (14 m.), and E. up the Sarine valley to Saanen or Gessenay (14 m.) , and by a tunnel to the Simme valley and Spiez on the Lake of Thun. The modern capi tal of the district is the small town of Bulle (Ger. Boll), with a 13th-century castle and 4,134 inhabitants. But the historical capital is the town of Gruyeres, on a steep hill above the left bank of the Sarine, at a height of 2,713 ft. above sea level and with an old castle. The town has 1,492 inhabitants. The castle was the seat of the counts of the Gruyere, first men tioned in 1073. The name is said to come from the word grayer, meaning the officer of woods and forests, but the counts bore the canting arms of a crane (grue), which are seen all over the castle and the town. In 1555 the domains were sold to Bern and Fri bourg. Bern took the upper Sarine valley, while Fribourg took the rest of the county, which it added to Bulle and Albeuve (taken in 1537 from the bishop of Lausanne), and to the lordship of Jaun in the Jaun or Jogne valley (bought in 1502—o4 from its lords), in order to form the present administrative district of Gruyere.