The Château de Coudray-Salbart is a ruined 13th-century castle in the commune of Échiré. Its architecture is remarkable, having never been altered. Notably, the castle supports spurs of almond wood.
The lords of Parthenay-Larchevêque gained control of the Coudray-Salbart site in the 12th century. In 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, who became the King of England in 1154, leading to the Poitou region falling under English rule. The fortress of Coudray-Salbart, built in the early 13th century, became a focal point in the conflicts between the French Capetians and the English Plantagenets.
The castle was however lost its purpose already in the 15th century and was ruined. Today beautiful ruins exist.
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.