It is one of the municipalities with a majority (about 75%) of German speakers in the predominantly French-speaking Canton of Fribourg.

On 1 January 2016 the former municipalities of Courlevon, Jeuss (Jentes), Lurtigen (Lourtens) and Salvenach (Salvagny) merged into Morat (Murten).

These flints were produced mostly in the swampy lowlands east of the city at Murten-Combette and Murten-Ober Prehl.

While many of these flint objects are in museums, the exact discovery sites were not properly documented and have been lost or covered by later excavations.

[7] The town's name derives from the Celtic word moriduno, meaning "lakeside fortress" [citation needed].

The fortifications were attacked and occupied by Odo II of Blois-Champagne in 1032 during the conflict after Rudolph's death.

Odo only held Murten briefly before Emperor Conrad II besieged and destroyed the castle.

In 1079 Emperor Henry IV granted Muratum and other properties to the Bishop of Lausanne.

[7] Murten was founded by Duke Berchtold IV[7][8] of Zähringen or Landri de Durnes, the Bishop of Lausanne[7] in either 1159[8] or during the 1170s or 1180s[7] next to the fortress.

After his death the German emperor Frederic II recognized Murten as a "Free Imperial Town".

[8] At that time the emperor himself lived in the south of Italy and a small town north of the Alps was not his concern.

When Philip I of Savoy refused to give Morat to him, King Rudolph of Habsburg seized it as a royal estate.

After Rudolf's death Amadeus V of Savoy, bought the city again in 1291, but lost it to King Albert I of Germany again.

On 22 June 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, laid siege to the place in an action known as the Battle of Morat.

In 1530, under pressure from Bern, Murten adopted the Protestant Reformation, after the preacher Guillaume Farel began to preach the new faith.

[7] During the second half of the 17th century the city grew wealthy on trade over the road from Bern to Vaud and along the Broye river to Yverdon.

When the Republic collapsed, the Act of Mediation in 1803 gave the town to the canton of Fribourg.

The Petitpierre family operated an absinthe distillery between 1831 and 1901 [citation needed] and Oskar Roggen ran a winery from 1888 to 1913.

In 1973, the Swiss Federal Railways bought Löwenberg Castle and lands from the family de Rougemont, to establish a training center.

Numerous attractions from a significant past have been well preserved here, such as the castle, the ring wall, the street scene and the arcades.

Mont Vully stands on the western side of the Seeland's largest plain and resembles a pearl gently placed among the three lakes of Murten, Neuchâtel and Biel/Bienne.

[citation needed] Already long ago, the Celtic and Helvetic tribes appreciated the region's temperate climate and the local countryside's particular charm.

The entire old city of Murten's and the village of Lurtigen are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[20] The Segelboothafen (sail boat haven/harbour) site is located along the lake shore at the foot of the old town's hill.

Later excavations found one or two strata that are up to 40 cm (16 in) thick and a field of wooden piles.

Archeological finds included pottery, stone tools, wooden objects and animal bones.

The wettest month is June during which time Murten receives an average of 106 mm (4.2 in) of rain or snow.

The driest month of the year is February with an average of 67 mm (2.6 in) of precipitation over 10 days.

After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship.

Both stations are located on the Fribourg–Ins and Palézieux–Lyss lines, with regular service to Lausanne, Kerzers, Fribourg/Freiburg, Neuchâtel, Ins, and Bern.