Pierrafortscha (; , locally ) is a municipality in the district of Sarine in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. History Pierrafortscha (Fribourg dialect for Pierre Forchue, forked rock) is first mentioned in 1267 as Pierraforchia. In 1277 it was mentioned as Bevrechie. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Perfetschied, however, that name is no longer used. Geography Pierrafortscha has an area, , of . Of this area, or 69.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 22.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.6%. Out of the forested land, 20.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 49.0% is used for growing crops and 20.0% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.4% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Sarine district, on the language border between the Saane/Sarine river and the Gérine. It consists of eight hamlets including Pierrafortscha, Villars-sur-Marly, Granges-sur-Marly and La Schürra. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Azure and Or overall a Rough Stone proper. Demographics Pierrafortscha has a population () of . , 9.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 8.6%. Migration accounted for 3.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.6%. Most of the population () speaks French (96 or 70.6%) as their first language, German is the second most common (38 or 27.9%) and Italian is the third (2 or 1.5%). , the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 67 Swiss men (45.3% of the population) and 6 (4.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 66 Swiss women (44.6%) and 9 (6.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 47 or about 34.6% were born in Pierrafortscha and lived there in 2000. There were 51 or 37.5% who were born in the same canton, while 24 or 17.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 9 or 6.6% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and