Hohenburg castle is assumed to be constructed in the second half of the 13th century. The influence of the Hohenburg family was extensive in the area between Bitche, Saargmünd and Pirmasens. There were feudal relations with the King but also to the Count of Zweibrücken and to the Counts Palatine. The castle is situated close to the German-French border on the Alsace side.
The first known representative of a Hohenburg family was Gottfried Puller who served in the military under the Emperor Friedrich II in 1236. In 1262 the name Hohenburg is documented for the first time, when Konrad and Heinrich of Hohenburg transferred their property to the bishop Heinrich II of Speyer.
The castle was seriously damaged in 1386 by the troops of Strasbourg during the siege and conquest of the neighbouring Löwenstein Castle. During the 30 Year War the castle was seriously damaged and in the 1780’s it was completely destroyed by French troops.
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.