Hokkaido Museum (北海道博物館, Hokkaidō Hakubutsukan) was opened in Sapporo in 2015. Located within Nopporo Shinrin Kōen Prefectural Natural Park, the permanent exhibition is dedicated to the nature, history, and culture of Hokkaido.
The Main Exhibition introduces two concepts: “Hokkaido as Part of Northeast Asia” and “The Interrelationships of Nature and Humans” through five themes integrating Hokkaido’s nature, history, and culture. Hokkaido is often seen as northernmost reaches of Japan, but from the broader perspective of northeast Asia, Hokkaido appears differently. It is common to see civilization and its natural environment as two separate entities, but understanding the interrelationships between humans and nature provides a new perspective. Understanding Hokkaido’s past and present will provide insights to its future.
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.