Switzerland - Fribourg - Cathédrale St-Nicolas

Fribourg (French pronunciation: ​[fʁibuʁ]; Arpitan: Fribôrg/Friboua, IPA: [fʁibwa] ( listen); German: Freiburg or Freiburg im Üechtland, Swiss German pronunciation: [ˈfribʊrg]; Italian: Friburgo or Friborgo) is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland (Romandy). Its Old City, one of the best maintained in Switzerland, sits on a small rocky hill above the valley of the Sarine.

Sarine District (German: Saanebezirk, French: District de la Sarine) is one of the seven districts of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It is largely French-speaking, with a German-speaking minority. Its territory is drained by the Sarine river (which gives it its name), and by its tributary, the Glâne. It has a population of 96,979 (as of 31 December 2011).

The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas  Freiburg (help·info) is the German name for both the canton and the town.

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own border controls, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. The most recently created canton is the Canton of Jura, which separated from the Canton of Bern in 1979.

The name is derived from the French language word canton meaning corner or district (from which the term Cantonment is also derived).