The colossal Heidenreichstein castle situated in the moorlands to the northwest of the Waldviertel is the largest and best preserved medieval water castle in Lower Austria. The oldest parts of the castle are dated back to the 12th century. It has never been in enemy hands since its construction. The walls of the four wings, the three corner turrets and the keep are up to four metres thick. A guided tour through the three-storey living apartments with spiral staircase and arcades discloses highly remarkable interior fittings including Gothic furniture, articles of daily life and portrait paintings.
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.