The Abbot's Garden, the Garden of the Cross, the Padres’ Garden, the Brothers’ Garden – since no later than the Baroque period, the monastery had several gardens that served quite different purposes. Padres and Brothers, in other words, residents of the monastery who were either ordained as priests or not, had separate gardens.
The cloister surrounded another garden, which was opposite today's museum. And a particularly attractive piece of land on the banks of the River Schutter was reserved for the abbot.
Above the door leading to the abbot's garden is an inscription from 1698 – specifically a chronogram, which includes a date encoded into the text. It translates as: "The house you enter, which had almost fallen into ruin, was restored by Jakobus and is dedicated to the Muses who were already at home here."
The Schuttern Gardens are regarded as the birthplace of a tradition that is now quite widespread. On the 16th of April 1691, the then Abbot Jakobus Vogler noted in his diary:
"At Easter I gave the local children eggs hidden in the garden."
That may well be the earliest reference to the custom of hiding eggs on Easter Sunday.
All depictions: © Historischer Verein Schuttern 603 e.V. / Gemeinde Friesenheim
