The Château de Saint-Izaire is a 14th-century episcopal castle. It is maintained by an association known as Vie et Château (Life and Castle), who have created a mini museum on the premises to record the history of the castle and the inhabitants of the village of Saint-Izaire.
The castle is a massive quadrangular red stone building that shelters the town hall of the village of Saint-Izaire. The structure is supported by a keep-tower in the southern wing (partially demolished since the 19th century). This keep contains mural frescoes dating from the 14th century, and the ceiling in the room of the bishops in the Baroque style of the 17th century.
The castle was built by Guillaume Rotlindes, ancestor of the current Rollinde de Beaumont. It was intended as a gift to the Abbey of Vabres, close to the commune of Saint-Affrique: the deed attesting the gift is preserved to the present day. The castle was often used as a summer residence by the abbey. When the cathedral and palace of Vabres were razed in the wars of religion, the castle was used by refugees from the abbey.
The Château de Saint-Izaire is one of a group of 23 castles in Aveyron who have joined together to provide a tourist itinerary as the Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue.
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.