Bad Schussenried can be explored from two very different angles: monastic history and architecture on the one hand, and shaped landscapes and themed trails on the other. The specific lengths of the geological trail and the Panorama Trail help distinguish the hiking options; museums and historic spaces offer different points of focus.
Monastic History and Architecture
The local lords Konrad and Beringer founded Schussenried Monastery in 1183. The monastery museum presents more than 800 years of monastic history through sculptures, Baroque paintings, epitaphs, liturgical objects, books and reliquaries. The collection thus offers different ways to explore the past: works of art sit alongside objects from religious life and written records.
The library hall is located in a Baroque convent building constructed by Jakob Emele from 1755 to 1763. As a Rococo room, it makes an impression through the interplay of architecture, sculpture and painting. Schussenried Monastery is also a major attraction on the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. Those interested in architectural history will therefore find both a specific space to explore and a broader art-historical context here.
The Steinhausen Pilgrimage Church was built from 1728 to 1731 by Dominikus Zimmermann and Johann Baptist Zimmermann. It is listed as closed in 2026 for interior renovation; check access before visiting. The Upper Swabian Museum Village of KĂĽrnbach features around 40 buildings from rural Upper Swabia and illustrates everyday life there since the Middle Ages.
The Beer Stein Museum offers a different cultural focus: it is devoted to five centuries of German drinking culture. It also displays a rock crystal described as the third largest in the world. In this way, monastic history, rural everyday life and everyday culture complement one another without offering the same perspective on the past.
Choose Trails and Landscapes with Care
The Bad Schussenried Geological Trail is an approximately four-kilometre circular route with nine information stops about glacial landforms and no major inclines. It combines a manageable distance with themed stopping points. The Panorama Trail is longer: the 2025 tourism brochure describes it as an easy 9.1-kilometre hike with 49 metres of elevation gain. The trail description mentions views of the Alps and Lake Olzreuter, as well as the return route through the Glacier Garden. The two trails thus differ both in length and in their stated points of interest. Local access conditions may change; check them before setting out.
Bad Schussenried’s landscape includes gentle hills, meadows and forests, as well as lakes and ponds, moorland and distant views of the Alps. At the Schussen spring lies the Schussen’s source basin, at the northernmost point of the Rhine Glacier’s terminal moraine. This terminal moraine forms the European watershed between the Danube and Rhine drainage basins. A memorial stone at the Schussen spring commemorates the remains of an Ice Age hunters’ camp found there in 1866.
The routes can also be distinguished by their themes: Bad Schussenried is part of the Way of St. James and the Poets’ and Mill Route. Steinhausen is also on the Way of St. James. Schussenried Monastery lies directly on the Bäderradweg, which connects Upper Swabia with Lake Constance. Check signage and access for this cycle route locally.
Discover more destinations: Kirchdorf An Der Iller, Ochsenhausen, Oggelshausen, Ummendorf, Warthausen, Langenenslingen, Altheim, Biberach An Der RiĂź
For the main travel overview: Biberach.
