The first Silkeborg Castle, a primitive wooden building surrounded by palisades, was built in 1385. It was later replaced by a stone building, and again in the early 16th century by a main building in stone, a courtyard and a stable yard. Silkeborg Castle received royal visits on several occasions. Both Frederik II and Christian IV were regular overnight guests in the main building “Det Store Stenhus” (the great stone house), during hunting trips and the like in Central Jutland. The castle was badly damaged during the Swedish wars in the 17th century, when Silkeborg was occupied by Swedish troops, who ravaged the castle buildings, no fewer than three times. Having been in a state of disrepair for years, the last remains of the castle were demolished in 1726. Today, the layout of both the main building and the courtyard is marked by embankments. There is access to the area via a bridge across the River Gudenå at Lake Silkeborg Langsø and from the Papirfabrikken area.
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.