Belfaux

History

Belfaux is first mentioned in the 12th century as Bellofago. In 1229 it was mentioned as Bellfozen. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Gumschen, however, that name is no longer used. On 1 January 2016, Belfaux annexed the neighboring municipality of Autafond.

Geography

Belfaux has an area, , of . Of this area, or 53.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 31.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 9.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.6%. Out of the forested land, 28.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 35.6% is used for growing crops and 16.6% is pastures, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.3% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Sarine district. It consists of the villages of Belfaux, Cutterwil and Autafond.

Most-observed species

• European roe deer

  Capreolus capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  6,766
• red fox

  Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  4,599
• common frog

  Rana temporaria Linnaeus, 1758 · Amphibia
  4,032
• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  3,017
• Common Toad

  Bufo bufo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Amphibia
  2,804
• Eurasian beaver

  Castor fiber Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  2,625
• European hare

  Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778 · Mammalia
  2,376
• hedgehog

  Erinaceus europaeus Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  2,366

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2025-07-21
  4 km E of Frutigen, Switzerland
• M 3.2 — 2024-05-09
  9 km SW of Evolène, Switzerland
• M 4.4 — 2023-03-22
  1 km NW of Pont-de-Roide, France
• M 3.3 — 2022-09-25
  7 km ESE of Ar?ches-la-Frasse, France
• M 2.7 — 2022-08-23
  4 km S of Turtmann, Switzerland
• M 4.1 — 2021-12-24
  2 km WSW of Blamont, France