[3] In 1080-81 the village was given by the brothers Gerold and Rudolf de Vilar to Cluny Abbey.

During the 15th century, the small priory began to lose importance until the office of prior was reduced to a title without power.

In 1484, by papal decree, leadership of the priory was transferred to the college of canons of the Munster of Bern.

Despite resistance from Fribourg, in 1530 Bern was able to retain control and secularize Münchenwiler.

[3] A village developed outside the walls of the Priory to support the farmers that worked the ecclesiastical fields.

Originally, the villagers attended church in the Priory chapel, but after the Bernese college of canons took over, the residents joined the parish of Morat.

Even after Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and spread it to Münchenwiler they remained part of the Murten parish.

[3] In 1535 Bern sold the Herrschaft of Münchenwiler to the former Bernese Schultheiss Hans Jakob von Wattenwyl.

For the next fifty years it passed through several owners, before the von Graffenried family acquired it in 1668 and held it until 1932.

In 1932 they sold the castle and its remaining park land to a consortium from Neuchâtel.

In 1943 the consortium sold it to the Canton of Bern, who converted it into a community Hochschule.

Later it became an adult education school before being renovated and converted into a hotel and convention center in 1986–90.

Following the 1798 French invasion, Münchenwiler became part of the Helvetic Republic in the short lived Canton of Sarine et Broye.

With the collapse of the Helvetic Republic and the Act of Mediation in 1803, Münchenwiler was assigned to the French-speaking Canton of Fribourg.

Four years later, through political maneuvering, the Canton of Bern was able to bring the municipality back under its control.

[5] Located on the southern shore of Lake Morat, it forms a Bernese exclave within the canton of Fribourg.

[6] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Monk proper holding a Linden tree Vert.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (398 or 91.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (21 or 4.8%) and Italian is the third (3 or 0.7%).

The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][14] The Castle with its park is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The entire village of Münchenwiler is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[9] There were 229 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.5% of the workforce.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.