St. Sampson's Church is dedicated to Samson of Dol, who brought Christianity to Guernsey in about 550 AD. Claimed to be the oldest Parish Church in the Island, the church stands on or near the site where St Sampson first landed as a pioneer missionary from Dol, in Brittany, about the year 550 AD, and has been a Christian site for worship ever since.
The present church dates from the 12th century, at which time it consisted of nave and chancel only. Work has been carried out over the centuries, however the church was substantially complete by 1350. The tower has a saddleback roof and the church is of a rugged style like no other in the Island, though similar to St Brelade’s in Jersey and a church at Mont St Michel.
In 1973 the North Chapel was dedicated to the memory of St Magloire, cousin of St Sampson. A pre-Reformation chalice and other relics found in the tower in 1913, included a crucifix, censer and candlesticks, are now displayed in St Magloire’s chapel.
The old regimental colours of the 2nd (North) Regiment of the Royal Guernsey Militia were placed in the church in May 1887.
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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.