Details
Founded: 1515Category: Castles and fortifications in Germany
Historical period: Habsburg Dynasty (Germany)
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Marienburg is located high above on the mountain ridge at which the Mosel bight of the Zell Hamm narrows to less than 300 metres. From here, visitors have a fantastic view of the wine-growing towns and villages of the Zell region and the almost 14 km long Mosel bight.
Over 1000 years ago there was already a castle where the Marienburg now stands. In 1146 an Augustinian convent was founded at the same location. This convent was dissolved in 1515 and a fortress was built in its place, which was destroyed in 1650 by French auxiliaries. The Marienburg was rebuilt in the Baroque period; some stretches of wall on the edge of the large car park date from the former Marienburg Farm, which supplied the Marienburg in the Middle Ages. The late Gothic choir is all that remains of the old convent church, which was rebuilt in 1957.
The Marienburg is therefore not only a location of natural beauty and historical memorability, it is also a building of art-historical interest and shows three building styles: the nave dates from the 12th century, the late Gothic choir dates from the second half of the 15th century and the elevated choir stonework with oval windows from the 18th century. Today, the building is home to the Marienburg youth education centre, with a guest house and conference centre.
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.