Because of its location, the collegiate church of Santa Cruz de Castañeda came to be part of the Pilgrim's Road to Santiago de Compostela. The existing building is from the 12th century, although the church, in Romanesque style, and a monastery, previously stood on the site.
Initially its plan had one nave and three apses, but it was later altered, adding 2 naves to the structure. One of them is in the Gothic style and the other later (17th century). They transformed the southern apse into a private chapel and sacristy in the Baroque style. On the capitals of the columns, which are preserved in perfect condition, the animal and vegetable iconography is outstanding. The Gothic Way of the Cross (there are no others like it in all Cantabria) the Baroque reredoses and 2 carvings of the Virgin with Child must not be missed.
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.