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Founded: 1753Category: Religious sites in Sweden
Historical period: The Age of Liberty (Sweden)
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The old church was originally constructed in 1753, but burned down totally in 1972 and was reinaugurated in 1976. The exterior was remade exactly as it had been earlier. The colors within the church – blue and red – relate to the colors on the Sámi traditional costume from the Jokkmokk area.The church is open for visitors during summer and the winter market.
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.