In the year 1303, the hospitaller brothers of the Obersteigen Monastery came to Saverne and built a new monastery. This monastery was successively occupied by the Franciscans (1486), by the Jesuits (1571) and by the Franciscans again from 1595 until the French Revolution (1789). The city bought the buildings in 1811 and installs in them a secondary school. This school still exists today. The church, dedicated to St Anthony of Padua, goes back to the origin of the monastery, at the beginning of the 14th century. From the three chestnut trees planted along the church, only one is still standing today, the first on the left. It is now much taller and it masks the sundial painted on the façade. The cloister contiguous to the church was built at the same period (beginning of the 14th century). Some modifications were made by the Jesuits in 1572. It is decorated with beautiful wall paintings from the first half of the 17th century (an inscription on one of those paintings gives the date of 1618). Let's go back to Main Street now, in order to go the middle city. We will cross the Rhine-Marne canal. [Back to start] [Rohan Castle] [The middle city] © Thierry Heitmann - 1997-2000