Kessenich Castle, Euskirchen, Germany

The two-part Kessenich Castle on the Erft river, which fed its moat, was first mentioned in records of the early 14th century. In 1339 the castle was registered in the fiefdom of the Margrave of Jülich. In the centuries up to 1828 the castle only belonged to the Jülich aristocracy for a short time. The Lords of Binsfeld owned and lived in the castle until 1604, when ownership was transferred via marriage to the aristocrat Waldbott von Bassenheim. In 1828 it passed into bourgeois hands and has been privately owned since 1884. Even today the essential features of the original two-part castle can be recognized, although the ditch between the fore-castle and manor house was filled in during the 19th century. The castle entrance is through the gatehouse, built in 1562, which still bears the coat-of-arms of the von Binsfeld family.

Today the original manor house has two wings with a round corner tower. It now appears to be a romantic country house, while the old foundations for further living quarters and towers are still preserved.

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Kreis Euskirchen

Wieskirche

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.

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Wieskirche