Älvsborg, also Elfsborg Fortress, is a sea fortress situated on the mouth of the Göta Älv river. It served to protect Sweden's access to the Atlantic Ocean and the nearby settlement of today's Gothenburg and its four predecessors. The fortress was relocated in the 17th century, this New Älvsborg Fortress is still maintained. Of the Old Älvsborg Fortress, only few ruins are visible today in the vicinity of the Carnegie-pier. The new fortress was founded in 1621 by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.
In 1643, a settlement in New Sweden, North America, was named Fort Nya Elfsborg, after the Swedish fortress. This settlement was however abandoned in 1655.
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.