Burg Metternich was mentioned in documents first time 1268, when it was owned by Johann von Braunshorn. It is thought the castle is even older, with some historians indicating 1129 as the year of construction. Until the first half of 17th century, the castle was owned by Counts von Nassau-Dillenburg.
The castle was not damaged badly before 1689, when French army destroyed the castle during the Nine Years' War. It was never completely rebuilt.
The last member of the family to own the castle was Klemens von Metternich, one of the most famous diplomats of the Austrian Empire – he was foreign minister from 1809 to 1848.
Today there is a hotel and restaurant.
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.