Details
Founded: 1882-1885Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Finland
Historical period: Russian Grand Duchy (Finland)
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Malmgård is one of the most magnificent manor houses in Finland. The history began in 1606 when Carl IX of Sweden donated 30 local farms to Estonian war widow Catharina Hess von Wichdorff. She later married Ernst (Larsson) Creutz from the near Suur-Sarvilahti manor house and Malmgård was merged to the property of Creutz family .
The current main building was built between 1882-1885 by governor Carl Magnus Creutz. The architect was F. A. Sjöström, who designed it in a Dutch Neo-Renaissance style.
Today Malmgård is still privately owned by the Creutz family. They farm organic food and there’s also a local brewery. Beers and can be tasted in the manor restaurant. Guided tours in manor house are available for groups from April to September (visits have to be reserved in advance).
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.