If you look up at the highest church tower in the Ortenau region or at the baroque plan of the monastery, you can get a good idea of the importance and beauty of the former Benedictine abbey. According to legend, the monastery was founded in 603 by an Iro-Scottish monk named Offo. In 817 it was one of the most important imperial monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. In 1016, the German Emperor Henry II stayed in the monastery of Schuttern and gave it, among other things, the villages of Friesenheim and Heiligenzell. The monastery lived through eventful times with famous personalities but also severe setbacks due to fires and wars. The monastery reached its last heyday in the Baroque period, when Marie-Antoinette spent the last night on Habsburg soil in Schuttern on her bridal train in 1770. In 1806, Napoleon's secularization brought the monastery to a sad end. From 1972 to 1976, the monastery church was excavated at a cost of over 5.3 million DM by Karl List, an amateur archaeologist from Lahr. During these excavations, a floor mosaic was discovered, which is considered to be the oldest non-Roman picture mosaic north of the Alps. It is said to be the tomb of the monastery founder Offo.
The excavation is not freely accessible. A guided tour with a visit to the excavation and the monastery museum can be booked through the local administration of Schuttern (Tel. 07821/6337-761) or through info@historischer-verein-schuttern.de.