Ilmmünster Abbey was formerly a collegiate foundation and originally a Benedictine monastery. The original site was a Benedictine monastery, founded in about 762 by the brothers Adalbert and Otker, traditionally supposed to be members of the Huosi, an ancient Bavarian noble family. The monastery was dedicated to Saints Arsatius, whose relics were here, and Quirinus, whose relics were at Tegernsee Abbey, founded by the same brothers, to which Ilmmünster was affiliated.
A collegiate foundation was also set up here in 1060. In 1493, the monastery was transferred to the Frauenstift in Munich, leaving the site for the Kollegiatstift. The property and assets were sold off in 1802 during secularisation, but the impressive church remains.
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.