In Fribourg dialect, the word poya means "ascent" or "slope". It wasn't until around 1880 that the term took on the more precise meaning of the ascent of the herds to the mountain pastures, although the practice of estivation dates back to the 15th century. Since the 1960s, the word poya has also been applied by extension to painted representations of this important episode in rural life.

Symbolising the start of the productive season, poyas appeared on the façades of farms in the Fribourg Pre-Alps in the 19th century. Farmers used to depict their own herds in the best possible light at the start of spring. With a long lace running through the image, the poya shows cows in procession, flanked by other farm animals, herdsmen in clothes that have changed over time, wearing top hats, capes, cowherd costumes, bredzons and other elements characteristic of life on the mountain pastures.

Sylvestre Pidoux (1800-1871), from Vuadens, is considered the first painter of this genre. He was self-taught and his compositions provided a lasting, albeit evolving, model, reflecting changes in the alpine economy and livestock selection.

Today, there are several hundred poyas on the region's farms and around fifteen painters capable of creating them. And although the number of farmers and alpine pasture keepers is dwindling, poyas are enjoying a resurgence of interest today and are finding new audiences: now a decorative and tourist asset, they adorn interiors and can be used on a wide range of media. The Musée gruérien in Bulle has over 80 examples.