The Rufo Ruffo Castle of Zanclea can easily be seen from the surrounding area. This fortress was built on top of a precipitous hill surrounded by green valleys from where you can overlook out on the sea. There was no architectural design planned therefore the castle was built with limestone rocks arranged in no rigorous way and solely based on the geographical locatio making it a challenge.
The castle was built in the second half of the 13th century by Frederick II as most castles in this area. Lived in by the king himself, then the beautiful explorer and warrior Macalda, the Emperoro Carl V, King Vittorio and mani more till it reached the last owner Antonio Rufo Ruffo, a great art collector of the time.
Inside the Rufo Ruffo Castle of Zanclea there are several objects from some museums of Messina. In particular there are paper documents related to the surrounding territory and the historical information of the castle and the noble families that lived there. The religious medals and medallions as well as the armour collections and marble objects are just a few of the things you can still see in this castle.
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.