Schlaining Castle is one of Austria’s best-preserved medieval castle complexes. The original Gothic structure was expanded over time by additions in the Renaissance and Baroque styles. The castle was first mentioned in 1271. It has been owned by counts of Güssing, Emperor Friedrich III and Batthyány family.
The castle’s inner courtyard contains a mighty keep with walls up to eight metres thick. One part of the castle houses a collection of cast iron and weapons, another has been turned into a modern hotel with conference facilities. Schlaining Castle is also home to the European Peace Museum.
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.