Pyhäniemi is one of the most culturally significant manor milieus in Finland. The history of Pyhäniemi manor dates back to the year 1467. During the 16th and 17th centuries it became a very remarkable horse farm. In 1780 Gustav III, the king of Sweden, ordered to construct a new main building and donated Pyhäniemi to his general Carl Johan Schmiedefelt. The end of the 19th century was the heyday of Pyhäniemi Manor. The householder Oscar Collin owned 10000 hectacres farm and 250 cows. The manor had also a sawmill and a wheelworks. In 1912 Collin lost the Pyhäniemi Manor in a gamble to Dutchman Hendrik Max Gilse van der Pals in Monte Carlo Casino. The manor of was the residence of Van der Pals until 1919.
In 1930s Pyhäniemi was a site for filming for the Suomi-Filmi studios and it was called as the "Hollywood in Hollola". During the Winter War (1939-1940) Pyhäniemi manor was used as the base of Finland Air Force operating from the lake nearby.
The two-storey main building is from the 1820s and its present appearance dates from renovation carried out in 1907. The large auxiliary building flanking the yard was built in the 1880s. The manor is surrounded by a park and a tree-lined lane leads to the main building. Today the manor offers art exhibitions, high-class concerts and conference services.
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.