Arnaud d'Aux was born in the little village of La Romieu in Gascony in 1265 and later became cardinal in 1312. To honour his birth he ordered the construction of this Collegiale de La Romieu. As a result an abbey with a church, two towers and a court were constructed in gothic style were completed in 1318. One of the towers is an octoganal completely closed structure. The other tower is a much more square-shaped open structure carrying the chruch bells. In the church which is beautifully restored, there are unique frescos with esoteric motives and black angels on display for the public. The tiled floor is still in its original state.
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.