User Reviews
Abuli fortress, located on the south slope of lesser Abuli mountain, on latitude 2500 m above the sea level, is one of the most mysterious and not well studied megalithic structures from the Bronze Age. The fortress has the shape of the ring. We can distinguish tower and living quarters inside the fort. Now in the area are no water sources. There are also not found cultural layers, although the excavations were not conducted seriously. In the current climatic conditions Abuli cleavage at such a height is not suitable for life, because of too low temperatures, although the Javakheti plateau everywhere are scattered ruins from different epochs, which show once active life in these parts, when the climate was warmer and softer.
You can get to the castle from the village Gandzani, driving along the dirt road through the pass and rounded the hill Abuli from the south. And from there one have to go by foot. Hiking to the top of Abuli takes around 1 hour. If trekking starts from the car road from Gandzani, then whole trek will take 6-8 hours. Tours to Abuli fortress may be arranged with cooperation of Alex Mukhranov who has already stormed the fort and prepared the photographs.
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.