Lindau Lighthouse is the southernmost lighthouse in Germany, located on Lake Constance. The lighthouse was built from 1853 to 1856 at the western mole in the entrance to the harbour of Lindau and was first lit on 4 October 1856. It succeeded the light station in the Mangturm tower of 1230.
During the first years of operation the light was created by an open oil fire. At that time the keeper would steadily have to keep the fire burning in great pans and operate a bell and foghorn. The firing was later converted to kerosene and then gas. Since 1936 the tower has been operated electrically and was automated in the early 1990s. The light is lit on demand by ships using radio signals. The light characteristic is one flash every three seconds which is created by two rotating parabolic reflectors.
The lighthouse and the entire port of Lindau were originally built by the Bavarian Railway Company and later used to be operated by the shipping department for Lake Constance of Deutsche Bahn. Eventually the port was sold to the city works of Constance in 2002 together with the Bodensee-Schiffsbetriebe GmbH shipping company. After several years of negotiations the port area and thus the lighthouse were transferred to the town of Lindau in April 2010. It is open to visitors who may find information on local fauna and flora and on Lake Constance shipping.
The lighthouse is a popular subject for photographs.
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.