Schloss Greifenstein is a castle in the mountainous Fraconian Switzerland region of Upper Franconia, Germany. Since 1691 Greifenstein, the 'stone stronghold' of Heiligenstadt round its walls, is the seat of the noble Schenk von Stauffenberg family. Greifenstein is a prominent feature of the modern tourist itinerary called the Burgenstraße.
The Gothic castle that was first noted in 1172 was ruined and pillaged during the Peasants' war of 1524-1525 and was subsequently rebuilt. Then Marquard Sebastian von Schenk von Stauffenberg, Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg, took possession and rebuilt Greifenstein in Baroque style from 1691 to 1693, under the direction of the Bavarian architect Leonhard Dientzenhofer; consequently, as a seat of the bishop it is sometimes called Greifenstein Palais, though the aofficial bishop's palace stood (and still stands) in Bamberg.
A comprehensive restoration was carried out by Otto Philipp Schenk, Graf von Stauffenberg, in 1975–77.
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.