Schloss Ebenrain is a former country residence in Sissach. Built in 1774-1776, it is considered the most significant late baroque residence in northwestern Switzerland. It is now a public facility and the site of an agricultural school.
Schloss Ebenrain was built as a summer residence for the wealthy Basel silk ribbon manufacturer and trader Martin Bachofen and his family. The Basel architect Samuel Werenfels designed the building. Bachofen intended at first to build a modest country residence, but changed his plans and built a luxurious estate. The gardens to the north and south of the residence were designed by Bernese architect Niklaus Sprüngli. Both gardens were converted to fashionable English parks in the early 19th century, but one landscape feature, namely the parallel rows of lindens lining the drive to the house, has remained essentially unchanged to the present day.
Since the elevation of a highway in 1967, Schloss Ebenrain and its park appear to be cut off from the town of Sissach. The residence is still accessible on foot or by bicycle, however, and the route from the Sissach train station to Ebenrain is marked by signposts.
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.