Alange Castle was built by the Arabs in the 9th century on a rocky hill, over the Matachel River, on the banks of the Alange reservoir. This defence fortress is at a strategic point from which access to the Silver Way was controlled. Its inaccessibility makes it a privileged place. It was witness to numerous battles and sieges between Moors and Christians.
The castle was conquered by Christians during Reconquista in the mid-13th century. It was abandoned in 1550. Although the castle was a great fortress, nowadays only three towers and the keep, made of strong brick walls and with numerous windows with horseshoe-shaped arches, remain. Some wells from the Islamic period are also preserved.
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.