The Church of St Hywyn, Aberdaron, Gwynedd, Wales, is a parish church dating from the 12th century. Its origins are earlier, as a clas church from the 5th to the 7th centuries. Further building, including the construction of the second nave, took place in the late 15th or early 16th centuries. Its importance was as an embarkation point for the abbey on Bardsey Island which became a significant site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. The Reformation saw the church's decline, and by the 19th century it was a ruin. In the 1850s a new church, Eglwys Newydd, was constructed inland, but proved so unpopular that St Hywyn's was restored.
The church comprises two naves, of equal length but of differing dates; the Northern is largely 12th century while the Southern dates from the 14th century. The building is constructed of rubble with slate roofs and a bellcote. The interior, which was refurbished in 2006 has a hammerbeam roof. The internal arcade is from the 15th century. Two carved boulders within the church commemorate a pair of 5th or 6th century priests, Veracius and Senacus.
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.