The Basilica of Saint Maternus (Basilique Saint-Materne) is a minor basilica in Walcourt. According to legend, an oratory was founded here by Maternus of Cologne (c. 285–315), who also carved a Madonna to replace an earlier pagan idol. The church does in fact contain a wooden Madonna, albeit from 950–1020, but still one of the oldest preserved Marian devotional statues in Western Christianity.
The church was consecrated in 1026. The presence of the Madonna and its allegedly miraculous properties led to the development of the church into a pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages. Subsequently, the church was rebuilt into the Gothic edifice seen today between the 13th and 16th centuries.
It contains a decorated rood screen from 1521, donated by Emperor Charles V, and decorated choir stalls from the early 16th century. The church has been damaged by fire and war on several occasions, most recently in May 1940 during World War II. Since 1941 it has been a listed building, and since 1950 classified as a minor basilica.
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.