An important trading route in the Sauerland passed through this area, compelling Cologne’s Archbishop Engelbert von Berg to build Schnellenberg castle in 1222. Subsequent owners during the next 100 years fortified the castle even further. In 1594 Caspar von Fürstenberg bought the property and constructed much of what you see today.
Burg Schnellenberg is one of mightiest fortresses in Westphalia. Massive gateways, stone bridges, beamed and high vaulted ceilings, and tower rooms transport you back to medieval times.
Interiors suggest a certain German heartiness with fireplaces that crackle and stag horns that gaze down from the walls. The majority of guest rooms are quite large and handsomely furnished. The tower room is the best room in the castle. The upper floors are the oldest with stuccoed beamed ceilings. The former brewery now houses a cozy bar, which is decorated with family coats of arms. A pleasant garden is a perfect place in which to relax.
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.