The present Lier Town Hall is the former clothmakers’ hall. In 1740 architect Jan Pieter de Bauerscheit the Younger substantially renovated the building, converting it into Brabant rococo style. It was designed as a large mansion adjacent to the Gothic Belfry. The council chamber is in Louis XV style. Special features worthy of note are the elegant oak spiral staircase, the painted ceiling in the council chamber, the wrought-iron work of art 'Fighting the Dragon' by Louis van Boeckel and a large collection of paintings and antiques.
In 1369 Hendrik Mijs built a Gothic belfry next to the clothmakers' hall. It stands as a symbol of freedom and independance. In the Middle Ages the town’s deeds and freedoms were kept in the belfries, as was the arsenal, and the town council’s assembly room was also to be found there.
Since 1971 the tower has housed a small automatic carillon with 23 bells. Together with 23 other belfries the Lier belfry was recognised by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1999.
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.