Niedermunster Abbey, situated at the foot of Mount Saint Odile was founded around 700 AAD by Saint Odile of Alsace, who was also the first Abbess.
Until the end of the 12th century, the two abbeys formed a single institution, but from the beginning of the 13th century, they began to operate as separate establishments. In 1542 the abbey came under the authority of the Great Chapter of Strasbourg Cathedral.
The Abbey buildings of which the ruins are still visible today were built between 1150 and 1180 AD. The Abbey was seriously damaged during the Peasants' War in 1525 and again by two fires, in 1542 and 1572. The nuns abandoned the abbey in 1545 and it was never reoccupied.
The site was then used, up until the 19th century, as a quarry for other buildings, including the adjacent farm.
For several centuries the abbey was known for its relics, the head and arm of Saint Lazarus of Marseille. When the abbey was burnt down these were transferred to Andlau, eventually disappearing during the French Revolution.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.