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Founded: 1896-1900Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Finland
Historical period: Russian Grand Duchy (Finland)
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Pitkäniemi is a mental hospital area built by the government in the end of the 19th century. It was then one of the largest building projects in Finland and purposed to provide mental health services to entire Western Finland. Pitkäniemi buildings were designed by architects S. Gripenberg, M. Schjerfbeck and E.A. Kranck.
The common supposition in the 19th century was that dwelling in nature and working outdoors is the best way to cure mental illnesses. The beautiful park were also added soon after buildings to Pitkäniemi.
Pitkäniemi area is a well-preserved and solid sample of public architecture in the later 19th century. It’s still in hospital use, but the park and Pyhäjärvi beach is open to the public.
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.