Bottna Church dates from the 12th century when the sea level was much higher, possibly reaching the foot of the hill on which the church stands. The church retains the character of the Middle Ages when entrances were on the southern long wall. The door was moved, but the doorway remains, where there is a carved stone relief.The walls surrounding the basilica and parts of the chancel are original. Additions were made to the chancel during the 16th or 17th centuries. The altarpiece, possibly a war trophy from Germany during the Thirty Years' War, was a gift from local man Bishop Johan Wingård. The church bell, cast in 1736, hung in a separate belfry until the present tower was built.
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.