Avenches on Lake Murten – an insider tip for a short break

I head west from Zurich. After a two-hour train ride, I reach Avench­es. A small well-known but unknown place just a few min­utes’ walk from Lake Murten.

First of all, I go to the tourist infor­ma­tion office in the town cen­tre at the church square. The nice lady explains to me in detail all the attrac­tions to be found in the old Roman city. She also points out many oth­er activ­i­ties in the area. There is even a near­by beach on the lake to dis­cov­er!

A leisurely tour of the medieval town

Where should I start? I decide to take a stroll through the town cen­tre. Accord­ing to my map, it’s just a kilo­me­tre and a half. Along an ancient tow­er, a shoot­ing range, I reach the muse­um, the cas­tle, accom­pa­nied by a view into the dis­tance.

Archaeological sites

The next stop is the Roman mon­u­ments, which Avench­es is famous for. Four times as many peo­ple lived here at that time. You’d nev­er know today look­ing at the (almost) emp­ty amphithe­atre.

The area with the indi­vid­ual ancient sites is huge and there are remark­ably few vis­i­tors. So I stroll to all the high­lights. There’s an excit­ing app that brings the indi­vid­ual ruins to life and recon­structs them visu­al­ly. Be sure to look for the four small binoc­u­lars, known as stere­o­scopes, and down­load and install the “Erleb-Ar” app via the QR code on site.

Break at the heart of the city centre

After a short lunch break on Rue Cen­tral, the pic­turesque main street, the next high­light awaits me: The Swiss Nation­al Stud Farm, just a good one-and-a-half kilo­me­tres out­side of Avench­es and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble on foot.

The Swiss National Stud Farm of Agroscope

I can’t real­ly imag­ine what it might be either, so I accept the sug­ges­tion of the tourist office and take a guid­ed tour of the Haras. These are avail­able for an hour and a half, start­ing at 15 francs per per­son. Haras? This word comes from Ara­bic and means «place where hors­es are bred». That makes sense. After all, this is where Freiberg­er stal­lions, orig­i­nat­ing from Saignelégi­er by the way (tip: youth hos­tel!) are bred and refined with the utmost care. The area can be vis­it­ed free of charge at any time; infor­ma­tion boards help you find your way. But I have to admit, a tour with such an enthu­si­as­tic guide is much more excit­ing. She knows quite a lot of back­ground facts and has answers to all my ques­tions.

60 stal­lions, two don­keys and lots of storks cur­rent­ly live here, the count­less storks only in sum­mer. But the pride and joy are the cold blood­ed hors­es. Pure­bred and designed for opti­mi­sa­tion. I find a rid­ing hall, a «fit­ness cir­cuit for hors­es», a clin­ic, a repro­duc­tion cen­tre, a car­riage hall, a sad­dler, a bri­dle room and spa­cious sta­bles.
Con­clu­sion: They place a lot of empha­sis on nutri­tion, well-being, but also on the fur­ther devel­op­ment of the hors­es in breed­ing here. A spa for these noble ani­mals that need 16 hours of exer­cise a day and only sleep for five hours! I didn’t know that until now.

An oasis: Avenches Youth Hostel

Slight­ly exhaust­ed by all the impres­sions of the day, I now head to the cosy Avench­es Youth Hos­tel – just a few min­utes away from the train sta­tion. A huge gar­den and a famil­iar scent wel­come me. The wood in the large fire pit is already burn­ing. It smells like bar­be­cu­ing and spring. Gré­go­ry, hos­tel man­ag­er and chef, is drap­ing veg­eta­bles on it and some guests have gath­ered to watch him cook­ing live.

Per­fect tim­ing. On the ter­race, I enjoy a deli­cious din­ner and the rays of sun­shine before head­ing into my cosy room. What a per­fect end to a won­der­ful day: Avench­es – I’ll be back!

Our tip

Be sure to vis­it Avench­es Youth Hos­tel. You can look for­ward to his­to­ry, cycling tours to Lake Murten and Lake Neuchâ­tel (in sum­mer, don’t for­get your biki­ni of course!) and the youth hos­tel gar­den to chill out!

To Avench­es Youth Hos­tel

These highlights and many more await you in Avenches