Château de Touffou was constructed over several centuries. The Medieval wing includes Romanesque and gothic elements (the keep). The east half dates back to the 12th century while the west half was constructed in the early 15th century. The Renaissance Wing was added during the 16th century by the Chasteigner family. The main difference between these two epochs in castle construction is that in the Middle Ages, a castle was built for defense. In the Renaissance however, a château was a home for nobles. Rather than defense and protection, the castle dwellers in the Renaissance strived for classy, fashionable residences.
Today, the medieval wing is used to accommodate large business meetings and seminars, and the Renaissance wing is the private residence of the château owner.
The château has been privately owned throughout its existence. It passed from the Oger family (1127-1280) to the Montléon family (1280-1519) and eventually to the Chasteigner family (1519-1821). Jean Chasteigner III, a Chamberlain to Francis I, oversaw most of the château's renovation in the early Renaissance.
Once the Chasteigners sold the château, Touffou changed hands several times, finally being purchased in 1966 by David Ogilvy from the 'de Vergie family'. The château is still owned by the Ogilvy family.
The Chambre François 1er (Francis I Bedroom) is named after the occasion when King Francis I supposedly visited Touffou. The château also has a Hunting Museum documenting the castle's hunting history and its impressive collection of over 1,500 hunting buttons – among the largest collections in France.
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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.