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Founded: 1370'sCategory: Religious sites in Estonia
Historical period: Danish and Livonian Order (Estonia)
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Väike-Maarja church was built on top of a chapel. It was first mentioned in 1346, main construction works took place in the 1370s. The church has relatively thick walls: 2,4 m in average, also had two embrasures near the western tower. There are also German and Estonian chapels, built in 1770 and in the beginning of the 19th century.
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.