The foundation of the castle on the island of Pantelleria can possibly traced back to the Arab or Byzantine period in Sicily, even if it is not attested with certainty before the 13th century.
The Castello Barbacane is located in the centre of Pantelleria town at the entrance of the old harbour and is accessed via a staircase from the Via Castello. It was a bulwark to protect the maritime trade of the island, facing the harbour on one side and walls lapped by the sea on the other side. Until just over a century ago, the castle was the predominant element of the walled city
The castle is well preserved and worth a visit.
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.