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Ortaköy Mosque (officially Büyük Mecidiye Camii) is a striking 19th-century mosque located on the Bosphorus waterfront in Beşiktaş, Istanbul. Commissioned by Sultan Abdülmecid I and designed by the Balyan family, it was completed around 1854-1856.
Famous for its picturesque setting near the Bosphorus Bridge, the mosque is a symbol of Ortaköy. Built in an eclectic mix of Ottoman Baroque and European Neoclassical styles, it features ornate stone carvings, a single dome, and two elegant minarets.
The mosque has undergone multiple restorations due to earthquake damage and fire, most recently in 2014. Inside, it features tall windows, marble and porphyry elements, trompe-l'œil frescoes, and calligraphy by Sultan Abdülmecid himself.
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.