The Château Perrier, a historic monument and former home of champagne merchants, provides an exceptional architectural and landscape setting for the 2,000 objects on display and can also be discovered during the visit.
Built between 1852 and 1857 by the Sparnacan architect Pierre-Eugène Cordier, Château Perrier is the first example of the Eclectic architectural style in this region.
The four facades are inspired by French Renaissance architecture and the Louis XIII style, similar to buildings in Paris such as the Palais du Luxembourg, the Palais des Tuileries or the Lescot wing of the Louvre. The sculpted decorations are brought to life by the interplay of the colours of the materials: brick, stone, slate and glass.
The collections present the wealth of cultural heritage in the region over four subjects: the formation of the countryside and the chalky Champagne subsoil, archaeological traces left behind by humans in Champagne, creation and history of wine in Champagne and patrons and explorers of the 19th century and the Belle Époque.
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.