User Reviews
In 1736, Philipp Karl von Eltz-Kempenich (1665–1743), the Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and Prince-Archbishop of Mainz, purchased a Vukovar manor in Syrmia, in the eastern Kingdom of Slavonia, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy ruled by Emperor Charles VI. The palace was originally built between 1749 and 1751 by the Archchancellor's descendants of the German Catholic noble House of Eltz and was gradually extended over time. The estates near the Military Frontier were, however, exposed to raids by Ottoman troops and local Hajduk paramilitary forces.
After the Yugoslav Partisans gained control over the country in late World War II, the manor was confiscated by the communist administration of Yugoslavia in 1944, and the family of Jakob Graf zu Eltz was forced to leave Vukovar. In 1990, he returned from Eltville to the newly established state of Croatia and became a member of the Sabor parliament at Zagreb. Eltz Manor, however, suffered a great deal of damage during the Croatian War of Independence, when it was bombarded by the Yugoslav People's Army during the Battle of Vukovar. However, after four years of restorations, it was completely restored to its pre-war appearance in October 2011.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.