Château de Castanet was built in the 16th century in Pourcharesses near Villefort. The territory of Castanet has its origin in the name (chestnut) in the language Occitan. It is the most common tree in the territory. The castle is next to the lake of Villefort, an artificial lake created behind the Villefort's dam, who went bankrupt destroy the castle.
The castle was built in 1578 by Jacques Isarn, a noble of Villefort. This family continued to grow in importance until marriage to a descendant with Marie-Suzanne de Varicourt, nourish and savior of the future King of France Louis XV. This évent led the family to move to Versailles.
The castle was sold in 1760 and after the emigration of the last owner, it will be sold as a national asset during the French Revolution. After that, the castle belonged to farmers.
In 1962, the national company 'Electricité de France' decided to build a dam in the valley. So it expropriated the last owners and planned to destroy the castle but the villagers revolted and entered the castle to make an Inventory of Historicals Monuments. In 2000, a terrible fire destroyed the castle but it was fully restored. The castle provides the setting for exhibitions for the summer period.
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.