During centuries, fortification walls and towers were built to protect ancient Nessebar. The first inhabitants on the peninsula were the Thracians who started to build these walls in the 8th century BC. From this period, a fortified wall and gate were found and can be seen today. After the decay of the Roman Empire, Byzantine rulers started an active construction work in the middle of the 5th century AD. The built walls were in style opus mixtum- an alternation of bricks and stone. Best preserved walls can be seen today near the city gate. The early Byzantine construction system was used in the middle ages as well.
Due to enemy war attacks, part of the walls were destroyed, but then quickly rebuilt. After the Ottoman rule in 1453, the fortification walls lost their significance and strategic importance and were left in ruins.
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.