The Château du Bois de Sanzay is located in Saint-Martin-de-Sanzay, between Thouars and Saumur. According to documents of the Saint Laon de Thouars abbey, in 1487 the land was bought from the clergy by François de Beaumont, chevalier Seigneur du Boys de Sanzay. The central building was built in the 15th century, and additions were made in the 18th century.
Built using large blocks of tufa stone for some parts and rubble for other parts, the main building has high chimneys, three monumental gothic fireplaces, an échauguette, a chapel, and cellars. The domain also comprises a dovecote, a French formal garden, and a pond.
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.