Kreuzberg was first mentioned as Cruceberg in a document in 893. Around 1100, the settlement came under the ownership of the Counts of Are, who built an initial residential house for one of their administrators on Kreuzberg. It is often stated that the bergfried (keep) of the castle was built during the 15th century. However, it is quite possible that this part of Burg Kreuzberg belongs to the oldest section of the complex and dates back to the 14th century. French troops destroyed the castle in 1686.
Today the main castle rises on an almost triangular ground plan, following the structure of the artificial castle plateau. The area is surrounded by the inner curtain wall. On the north side of the main castle area stands the baroque, two-story residential building made of rubble stones.
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.