Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and district of La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, administrative and educational centre on the cultural border between German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Its Old City, one of the best-maintained in Switzerland, sits on a small rocky hill above the valley of the Sarine. In 2018, it had a population of 38,365.

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte. Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte and Dreizehn Orte.