The Temple of Athena Alea in Tegea served as a crucial symbol for Tegeans from the tenth century BCE, showing links to nearby regions. Legend credits local hero Aleus with its construction, although this may be a later addition.
The original temple likely dates to the early Archaic period, with a renowned replacement built by Scopas after a fire in 394 BCE. Notable figures sought asylum there, including Chryseis, Leotychides, and Pausanias.
The temple's interior featured a stunning Doric structure with Corinthian and Ionic columns. Its centerpiece was an ivory statue of Athena by Endoeus, later taken to Rome by Augustus.
Exterior decorations depicted myths like the Calydonian Boar Hunt and Telephos fighting Achilles, linking Tegea's local heroes to broader Greek mythology. Inside, the temple housed statues of Asclepius and Hygieia by Skopas, alongside representations of local figures and deities like Rhea and the Muses.
The temple hosted two festivals, Aleaia and Halotia, and was served by a young priest until puberty, according to Pausanias.
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.