Podsreda Castle dates to around 1150 and is probably the best-preserved example of secular Romanesque architecture in Slovenia. It features a typical 12th-century defensive tower (keep), a Romanesque chapel, and two wings from about the same period. The orderly, rectangular plan is also typical of the late Romanesque period.
Over the years the castle has seen many owners. Though neglected after the Second World War, the castle has since undergone extensive renovation work, starting in 1983. During the renovation numerous forgotten and neglected features where rediscovered, among them some Romanesque double windows, the chiselled frames of windows and doors and the remains of paintings. It is open during the summer months and a popular setting for weddings.
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.