Château d'Haroué was built between 1720 and 1732 by Germain Boffrand during the period when Lorraine was independent of France, for Marc de Beauvau, prince de Craon, viceroy of Tuscany and constable of Lorraine.
Surprisingly, the architect had to integrate into his plans the four towers and moat of an older medieval château, a consideration for medieval buildings which was unusual for the classicist period. Le château's design also symbolises a year: 365 windows, 52 fireplaces, 12 towers (several included in the buildings) and 4 bridges crossing the moat.
The decoration was largely entrusted to artists from Lorraine : Jean Lamour (1698–1771) for the gates, balconies and staircases, Pillement (1698–1771) for the painted decoration of one of the towers, Barthélemy Guibal (1699–1757), sculptor of the fountains of place Stanislas at Nancy, for the statuary. The park was designed by Emilio Terry.
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.