iCyclades - Cyclades Discovery Guide

This complex of historic buildings is a former Benedictine abbey which now houses a museum (which we did not visit). A visit to the museum gives access to the former convent, the abbot's houses and the monastery gardens. We shot a series of panoramas only in the parts that are freely accessible.

Stein am Rhein is situated on a navigable part of the Rhine and beautiful river cruises are possible. To the west, you can go as far as Schaffhausen with stops at Diessenhofen with its old wooden bridge and in the German enclave of Büsingen. To the east, boats travel from one side of the Untersee (western part of Lake Constance) to the other, with stops in Switzerland and Germany as far as Constance and Kreuzlingen.

Here we see the back of the town hall with the beginning of the main square to the left and the Rhigass (Rhine alley) leading down to the bridge over the river. To the right of the building, the arched passageway leads to the Oberstadt. Behind us: entrance to the church and stairs leading down to the former Benedictine abbey.

Chirchhofplatz is both a square and a street. Here it runs alongside the church and behind us it turns north to the small crossroads where, on leaving the town, the Oberstadt from the town hall square meets the Chlini Schanz running around the town and the road to Oehrlingen in Germany.

This street starts at the edge of the Rhine and runs all the way around the medieval town to the Chirchhofplatz (church square) to the east. Its name apparently means "small bastion" and probably follows the line of an earthen wall which served as the first line of defence against enemy attacks.

To our left is the church door, where you can admire murals that survived the iconoclastic excesses of the Reformation. In front of us, stairs lead down to the former Benedictine abbey.

The Hexenturm ("Witches' Tower") was built in the 14th century and was used as a prison until around 1800. The belief in witches continued for a long time in the whole region and from 1512 to 1667, no less than 17 suspected witches were executed in Stein am Rhein after mock trials that we can imagine in our worst nightmares.

The Oberstadt ("upper town") is the street that runs from the left of the town hall to the road that leads to the neighbouring village of Oehningen, in German territory. Our panorama was shot where a passageway leads to the Chirchhofplatz, the large church square.

All around the square, houses with richly decorated facades bear witness to the town's history. To the right of the red house (Vordere Krone, 14th century), the Rother Ochsen (Red Ox), built in 1446 and transformed in 1615, is the oldest tavern in the city. Behind us, the town hall took its present form around 1900 but the building dates back to the 16th century.

On the corner of Schwarzhorngass, the house Zum Schwarzen Horn ("at the Black Horn") was built in the 15th century. The fresco on the façade, painted in 1914, commemorates the return in 1664 of a baron who was born in this house and who had been an imperial resident of the Ottoman sultan.

The Brodlaubegass, which opens up on the right, marks the boundary between the Rathausplatz (town hall square) and the Understadt (lower town), the main street which continues in the direction of the Untertor Gate, which closes off the medieval town to the west.

After our dive into the tourist crowds in the historic city, we took time out for a walk along the banks of the Rhine. This virtual stroll was done on a beautiful day in September 2021 and the old town was really overcrowded, while the river promenade was much quieter.

It was once the church of the neighbouring monastery. It was built in the 12th century but the iconoclasm of the Reformation a few centuries later destroyed the interior, except for the choir stalls and paintings. It was transformed into a Protestant church in the 16th century and underwent various modifications in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Understadt (Lower Town) is the street that runs from the Market Square (Rathausplatz) to the Undertor, the western gateway to the medieval city. Numerous old houses catch the eye above the shops and café terraces and the whole area remains very picturesque despite its very touristy aspects.

Nobody knows when the Undertor was built. Also named Zeitturm (clock tower), it was first mentioned in 1367. However, it is not the original gate, which was destroyed by an American bombing in 1945. Fortunately, it has been rebuilt exactly as it was!