Vlotho was a medieval hill castle above the town with same name. The extended property is located on the Amtshausberg with a steep grade to east and south. The bent river has a natural harbour, on the medieval main road from Frankfurt to Bremen.
The castle was built around 1250. It was razed around 1368. The foundation is the only part from the medieval period. Drawings dating back to 1581 are extant, but they are no reliable representation. The castle ruins were demolished in 1709, with only the dungeon surviving until 1936. The castle ruin is c. 110 metres m long and c. 60 metres m wide. The surrounding wall is mostly preserved.
Part of the reconstructed castle is covered by a modern protective roof. The property features a restaurant with garden area. The terrace offers a view over the Weser valley.
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.