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The Galata Tower is a medieval Genoese tower in the Galata part of Istanbul, Turkey. Built as a watchtower at the highest point of the mostly demolished Walls of Galata, the tower is now an exhibition space and museum, and a symbol of Beyoğlu and Istanbul.
During the Byzantine period the Emperor Justinian had a tower erected in what was to become Galata. This tower was destroyed by the Crusaders during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204. In 1267 a Genoese colony was established in the Galata part of Constantinople. It was surrounded by walls and the Galata Tower was first built at their highest point in Romanesque style in 1348 during an expansion of the colony. At the time the Galata Tower was the tallest building in the city.
After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Genoese colony was abolished and most of the walls of the citadel were later pulled down in the 19th century, during the northward expansion of the city in the districts of Beyoğlu and Beşiktaş; though small parts of the Genoese walls in Galata have survived. The tower was allowed to survive and was turned into a prison. It was from its roof that, in 1638, Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi supposedly strapped on wings and made the first intercontinental flight, landing in the Doğancılar Meydanı in Üsküdar on the Asian side of the city, a story of doubtful authenticity recounted by the Ottoman travel writer, Evliya Çelebi.
In 2020 the Tower was splendidly restored then reopened as a museum now open for the public and the many tourists visiting Istanbul. It is mainly popular for the 360-degree view of Istanbul visible from its observation deck.
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.