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Château de Louvois was originally built in the 13th century, but underwent substantial renovation following its acquisition by the young Marquis de Louvois. He entirely rebuilt the property, replacing the medieval chateau with a grand and gracious residence boasting some of the finest gardens to be seen anywhere in 17th century France. Behind the chateau, a succession of parterre gardens extended all the way to a U-shaped retaining wall against the hillside. A ramp on either side of the gardens led to a terrace featuring a 60-foot wide pool with decorative water spouts.
From there a grand degré (monumental staircase) led to a long, wide, central avenue that ran through woodlands, and to a large, upper pool that served as a reservoir for the lower terrace pool, the pools in each of the four flanking bosquets and also the water tower. The reservoir itself was supplied with water that had to be channelled three kilometres from the springs of Vertuelles and the Fontaine Fraîche.
The property was sold in 1776 to Louis XV’s daughters, Adélaïde and Sophie then destroyed (except for the foundations) at the time of the French Revolution. It was rebuilt in the 19th Century, complete with wrought iron entrance gates widely considered to be among the finest examples of traditional locksmithing.In more recent times (2012-2013), luxury Champagne House Laurent Perrier commissioned students of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Versailles to examine correspondence by the Marquis de Louvois together with plans stored in the archives of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm. Their findings show that André Le Nôtre was the creative genius behind the terraced vertugadin (turfed greensward), with its playful visual effects on the views from and towards the chateau.
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.