The first document to mention the castle in Carovignot dates back to 1163. Since then, the fortress fell in the hands of several rulers, the Normans of Geoffrey III of Montescaglioso, the Swabians in 1194 and the Angevines in 1306. In 1382 it passed to the prince of Taranto Raimondo del Balzo Orsini who then bequeathed it to his wife, queen Maria of Enghien, countess of Lecce.
The present appearance of the castle is due to recontruction works carried out between 1300's and the 1400's on a previous building. The rare triangular plan features angular towers connected to each other by curtain walls. The whole upper level is slightly jutting, while the walls are thickly crenellated. The curvilinear tower further amplifies the impression of a military building and unveils the Senese influence of the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini.
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.