In 1100, a nobleman named Heinrich named himself after the old Clingenburg (castle). He belonged to the noble family of Reginbodo. The Clingengurg castle was built around 1160-1170 by Conradus Colbo, who was cup-bearer to Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa.
About 1250, the Bickenbach noble family moved into the castle; the Bickenbachs later held many influential offices in the Holy Roman Empire and many a time turned up in Imperial politics as brokers.
After the Bickenbachs died out in 1500, the town, castle and lordly domain passed to the Archbishop of Mainz. Clingenburg castle was destroyed by the French in the late 17th century and never rebuilt. It remained a ruin.
In the 20th century Clingenburg was opened up to tourism with a restaurant and a lookout platform affording visitors a view over the old town and the Main valley. Since 1994, the Clingenburg-Festspiele have been taking place, drawing many visitors each year with changing plays and musicals.
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.