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Founded: 15th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in Germany
Historical period: Habsburg Dynasty (Germany)
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The Late Gothic Eagle Tower was built in the 15th century as a part of the Rüdesheim city fortification. It is 20,5 m high with a 5 m interior diameter, 1 m thick walls, four floors and an underground dungeon accessible only through a hole in the vaulted ceiling. It was located close to the river. In winter, when the frozen up Rhine was safe for crossing on foot, a basket with combustible material was put on the tower as a fire signal. In the 19th century, when the Adlerturm housed an inn called “Zum Adler” (In the Eagle), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany’s greatest poet and literary man, frequently stayed here during his Rüdesheim visits in order to enjoy the magnificent view of the Rhine. Today the Adlerturm is the property of a bank.
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.