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The Baumkircher Tower, also known as Tabor Castle, is a defensive tower or small castle located in the town of Vipava. The tower was built by Herhlin Kranspergar in 1342, as a fortification guarding the adjacent stone bridge across the Vipava River. In 1386, the knight Haertl sold it to Hermann I of Celje After passing from their hands to the Patriarchate of Aquileia to the Habsburgs, it was given in fief to the knights Baumkircher, who lent it its current name. The family retained it until 1471, when then-owner Andreas Baumkircher instigated a revolt of the Styrian nobility against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, and was beheaded for treason in Graz.
The castle then reverted to the duchy of Carniola, and was managed by its officers and leaseholders. The latter included Jurij Gallo, who between 1517-1521 subleased the tower to Carniolan vicedom (bishop's deputy in secular affairs) Erasmus Braunwart.
From either 1533 or 1624 to the end of World War I, the castle was a possession of the Lanthieri family.
The preserved elements of the structure include a part of the old main building, the defensive tower, and a partial wall with a gateway and a stone relief of the Lanthieri arms, dated 1653, set above the portal.
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.