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Founded: 4800 BCECategory: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in France
Historical period: Prehistoric Age (France)
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The Tumulus of Bougon is a group of five Neolithic barrows located in Bougon, near La-Mothe-Saint-Héray, between Exoudun and Pamproux in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
Their discovery in 1840 raised great scientific interest. To protect the monuments, the site was acquired by the department of Deux-Sèvres in 1873. Excavations resumed in the late 1960s. The oldest structures of this prehistoric monument, called E1 and F0 date to 4800 BC.
The Bougon Museum, opened in 1993, is a modern structure, incorporating an ancient farmhouse. The exhibition is focused on prehistory in general and the Neolithic in particular. It includes the excavated material from the site, but also replicas of a room in the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) and of the passage tomb art from Gavrinis (Brittany). The museum also has an outside area with displays of experimental archaeology, including reconstructions concerned with prehistoric methods for the transport and construction of megalithic monuments.
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.