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Founded: 1783-1789Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Latvia
Historical period: Part of the Russian Empire (Latvia)
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Varakļāni palace was designed by the Italian architect Vincenzo Macotti at the request of the estate's owner, Count Michael Johann von der Borch. Construction was begun in 1783 and completed in 1789. The palace was one of the first buildings in the classicism style in Latvia. It is an architectural monument of national importance consisting of 3 parts, which are connected by galleries. In the central part of it, there is a tower with a gallery, which burned down at the beginning of the 20th century. The palace has two storeys in the middle part of it and in the wings of it.
The building housed the Varakļāni secondary school from 1921 to 1960. The palace and grounds are currently administered by the town of Varakļāni.
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.