St Michael and All Angels stands outside the village of Castlemartin, adjacent to two holy wells which may indicate the site held religious significance in pre-historic times. A cross, dating from the 7th–9th centuries, was discovered embedded in the church wall in 1922, but has subsequently been lost. The main body of the current building dates from the 13th century, although the centrally-placed tower is later, of the 14th or 15th centuries. The church was restored, firstly in the early 19th century, and again in 1858.
The church has some notable Victorian stained glass from the studios of Hardman & Co. and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. A Hardman window of the Crucifixion, to a design by Augustus Pugin, has been described as the best example of Pugin's work of any church in Wales. The church contains a First World War memorial commemorating three men from Castlemartin who were killed in the conflict. The church was declared redundant in the early 21st century and is now in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.
St Michael's is a Grade I listed building. The adjacent vicarage, now derelict, and a mounting block in the churchyard have their own listings.
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.