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Founded: 13th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Late Capetians (France)
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The Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers is located in the commune of Les Trois-Moutiers in the north of the Vienne department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Built around the 13th century in the Loudunais area of Anjou, it was originally named La Mothe-Bauçay (or La Mothe-Baussay), after the family that owned it. Through inheritance, the estate passed in 1448 to a branch of the House of Rochechouart, who were also lords of Champdeniers. One of its members, François de Rochechouart, Marquis of Chandeniers, accused of having participated in the Fronde, settled there in exile. The lavish lifestyle he led there led to his personal bankruptcy. The estate was sold in 1668, but it was this period that gave the château its final name. From then on, it passed through the hands of many French families, both noble and bourgeois.
Embellished in the early 19th century, the château was completely rebuilt from the mid-1850s onward. The surrounding area was also landscaped so that the building is encircled by water, similar to the Château d'Azay-le-Rideau.
Severely damaged by a fire in 1932, the building gradually deteriorated and fell into ruin, despite restoration efforts by successive owners.
In December 2017, the château was bought by thousands of internet users, following a crowdfunding campaign initiated by Dartagnans and Adopte un Château, which extended well beyond the borders of France. It is now owned by the “SAS Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers,” a company that brings together the many owners. Their main goals are to stop the deterioration of the building and to develop the château, its outbuildings, and the 2.1-hectare estate.
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.