Avolsheim lies to the west of Strasbourg, at the start of the Alsace Wine Route. Nestled between vineyards and wheat fields, the village boasts many assets. A real cycling hub, it lies at the junction of two major cycle routes in Alsace: the vineyard cycle route and the Bruche canal.
The prefix "offe" (from the German "offen = open) is thought to be the origin of the name Avolsheim, meaning "open village". It's possible that this name was given to the village because it had no ramparts, which was relatively rare in the Middle Ages.
The village is home to one of the oldest churches in Alsace: the Dompeter (11th-12th centuries), but its foundations date back to the 8th century. At the heart of the village is the Saint-Ulrich chapel, known as "le baptistère", in the shape of a four-leaf clover. The interior is decorated with 12th-century frescoes. A little further away are the small and large floodgates (Avolsheim dam) of the Canal de la Bruche (1682), built by order of Vauban to supply the latter with water from the Bruche, as the flow of the Mossig was insufficient in summer. The canal was used to transport stone from the royal quarry to the Strasbourg citadel, which was under construction at the time.
The village also boasts a number of signposted footpaths, including the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which links the village with Strasbourg and Molsheim.
