Monastic Coat of Arms on Oberschopfheim Rectory @museum.de

This stone, carved with a coat of arms, was mounted above the entrance to the old rectory in Oberschopfheim. On the left-hand side, we see the coat of arms of Schuttern Monastery: a king kneeling before the Virgin and Child, presenting a miniature church. The coat of arms on the right is that of Abbot Carolus Vogler of the Imperial Monastery of Schuttern. The abbot's coat of arms references Schuttern as the builder of the rectory, comprising the house and barn. That’s because the Abbot of Schuttern held the tithing rights of Oberschopfheim and was its patron. A similar stone carved with a coat of arms can be found above the main portal of the monastic Church of the Assumption of Mary in Schuttern.

When the rectory was built by Schuttern Monastery in 1758, the newly carved stone with the coat of arms was mounted above the entrance.

When that building was demolished in 1968 and replaced by a new one on the same site, the carved stone was set into the wall by the stairs up to the new rectory’s front door. But the coat of arms was becoming ever more weathered, so in 2022, the Oberschopfheim Historical Society had it restored and preserved.

The carving with the coat of arms is included in the State of Baden-Württemberg’s list of cultural monuments.