In 1231 the city of Kowalewo was captured by the Teutonic Knights. They soon built a castle, and in 1275 they granted city rights to this developing settlement. After the complete destruction of the city and the castle by the Tatars in 1286, relocation took place, most probably under the conditions of the Chełmno Law. The castle was rebuilt in 1278. Invasions of the Prussians, Tatars, and Lithuanians hastened the decision to build the defensive walls around the Kowalewo in the 14th century. In 1454 the city was invaded by the armies of the Prussia States who formed a rebellion against the Teutonic Knights.
Finally, in 1466 Kowalewo constituted a section of Poland. Since the 15th century in Kowalewo the Magistate Courts and Sejmik of the Chełmno Land had gathered. The city played a role of the local trade and craft center. During 1629, 1655-1657 the city was occupied and plundered by the Swedes, in 1713 by the Russians. In 1772 only 34 houses of the townspeople existed. The city walls were ruined, as well as the castle and church.
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.