The history of Laval Dieu begins in this place formerly called “la Bouche de Semoy” when the Archbishop of Reims, Hincmar, had a chapel built in 867, that was dedicated to Saint Rémy and entrusted it to the secular canons from the Braux Collegiate Church with a view to evangelising the region. Twelve canons from Prémontré arrived in the month of June 1128, at the beginning of the Semoy Valley which then became for evermore the “Vallis Dei”, the Vallée de Dieu, Laval-Dieu. Right from the moment it was founded Laval Dieu Abbey received as alms or in exchange for prayers, the inherited lands in Monthermé and further beyond in the neighbouring areas situated in the Empire, such as Auton wood in the Roc la Tour direction, owned by the Orchimont family. That is how Monthermé became an entity, a village, a seigneury whose lord of the manor was the Abbot of Laval Dieu. The inside of the church’s walls is entirely covered with oak panelling up to a height of 3.50 m that was installed in the early years of the 18th century.
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.