the exact foundation of Bjerning Church is unknown, but since the original part of the church, nave and choir is a typical Romanesque ashlar-church, it is reasonable to assume that is was erected around the year 1200. Fixtures in the church also confirms this, like a figure of an archbishop in wood, which has been dated to around 1250, and a figure of Mary and child from around 1350.
On November 17th 1937, a violent fire broke out, and everything flammable, such as altar, altarpiece, pulpit, benches etc. were totally destroyed. Only the roof over the sacristy avoided the flames.
Today, the church bears the marks of the 1938 and 1939 restoration. At the alter, a crucifix-group stands on a predella with Christ on a throne. The granite baptismal font was carved in 1939 as a replica of the old, and the pulpit is also a fairly accurate replica of the one destroyed in the fire.
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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.