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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Trophime, located in Eschau in the Lower Rhine, was founded around 770 by Remi (Remigius), the future bishop of Strasbourg and nephew of Saint Odile. It initially housed a Benedictine abbey dedicated to St.Trophime, before becoming the abbey of St.Sophie after the deposit of relics reported from Rome in 777 by Remi. He was buried there in 783, consolidating his connection with the bishopric of Strasbourg.

The building suffered successive destruction, notably by the Hungarians in 926, and was restored from 991 under Bishop Widelord. In the 11th century, the abbey prospered through episcopal donations, such as that of St. Helena's Church in 1028. In 1143, the Abbess Chunegundis founded a hospice with a medicinal plant garden, restored in 1987. Partly destroyed in 1298 during a regional conflict, the abbey was attached to the bishopric in 1525 after the Peasant War.

Ranked a Historical Monument in 1898, the church preserves elements from the X, XI and XIII centuries, as well as remarkable furniture, including four carved wooden statues. The 18th century campanile, abolished in 1947, was replaced in 1987 by a concrete structure. In 1938, new relics of Saint Sophie were transferred there, perpetuating his spiritual and historical heritage.

The capitals of the cloister destroyed in 1298 are now on display at the Notre Dame Work Museum in Strasbourg. The convent buildings, destroyed in 1822, and the restorations of the 20th and 21st centuries (such as that of 1996 for the millennium of restoration by Widelord) testify to its architectural evolution and its central role in Alsatian religious history.

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