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Founded: 12th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
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The Château de Charance, a former 12th-century fortress, is located in Gap (Hautes-Alpes). Renovated multiple times, it has housed the administrative offices of the Écrins National Park since 1973. Its gardens host the Alpine Plant Conservatory.
Partially listed as a historic monument in 1987, the château was owned by bishops until the French Revolution. It was looted during the Wars of Religion and rebuilt several times. In 1791, it was auctioned as national property. In the 19th century, the estate was transformed with English-style gardens, cascades, and a lake.
Gap acquired the château in 1973, making it public. The terraced garden, covering 9,000 m², was labeled a 'Remarkable Garden' in 2005. It features fountains, canals, and a collection of 1,000 rose varieties, along with historic fruit trees. At 1,100m altitude, the site includes wooded areas and the Gap Canal.
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.