The statue to the left is a monument to Father (Pere) Grégoire Girard (1765-1850), a Jesuit teacher, by Joseph Simon Volmar (erected 1860). The steeple spire has since been altered.

During the Reformation Fribourg remained Roman Catholic and became a center for the Counter-Reformation. Notre-Dame is a Romanesque church, built at the end of the 12th century, altered in the 18th century, with the addition of a Baroque facade. The interior contains an 18th century Neapolitan nativity scene (creche). The Notre-Dame du Rosaire Chapel is early Gothic.