Building the Val-de-Charmey landscape

The Val-de-Charmey offers a varied landscape with alternating hay meadows, pastures, forests, alpine pastures, wooded areas and residential areas. This mosaic landscape did not always exist, as for a long time the vegetation consisted of forests. Clearing between the 11th and 13th centuries by the Carthusian monks of La Valsainte gave rise to a more diversified landscape. Today, the continuity of farming activities helps to maintain the open landscape and prevents the return of the forest.

All along the Charrière route, the landscape is the result of diversified farming practices adapted to conditions linked to the soil and topography: hay meadows on easily mechanised areas, fertilised or thin pastures depending on slope and accessibility conditions, extensive meadows in dry or wet areas.

In the Vallée du Javro, there are scattered settlements, unusual in Gruyère. The modern farmhouses are located by the road, while the old farms are closer to the footpath, once the main communication route.