12th century ruin.
The ‘monastery below’ was founded by Saint Odile in the early 8th century. It probably welcomed pilgrims who could not physically reach the Hohenbourg (today’s Mont Sainte-Odile). It had housed relics of the Holy Cross since the Count of Burgundy Hugues III, known as ‘l’Peureux’, felt unworthy to be its guardian and decided to tie the precious reliquary to the back of a camel and place it wherever the camel, which was travelling freely, decided to stop. It was near the abbey of Niedermunster, where the chapel of Saint James was built, around two rocks that resemble the humps of a camel that the animal stopped its journey. The relic remained in the possession of the nuns of Niedermunster for a long time before passing into the hands of the Jesuits of Molshiem and being destroyed during the French Revolution.
The abbey church, built between 1150 and 1180, after Emperor Henry II granted the abbey royal immunity and the right to freely elect its abbess. It was destroyed by fire in 1572 and used as a stone quarry. The crypt beneath the choir is still clearly visible. The little elevation that remains gives an idea of what this church was like, with its six-bay nave and general layout similar to that of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul in Rosheim.