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Founded: 13th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Late Capetians (France)
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Built on a height of 330 meters overlooking the valley of the Agout and hillsides of Lauragais, the site of Château de Magrin may have been occupied by a Gallic oppidum, converted into Roman castrum, and then reworked by the Visigoths.
The first written record of the château dates from 7 August 1224, when the chatelain put himself under the protection of the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII. In 1279, a notarial act attributed his property to the Brenguier family of Puylaurens. During the Hundred Years War, a gang of bandits used it as a base for their raiding raids in the surrounding area, and, in 1502, it belonged to the Corneilhan family. During the wars of religion, its occupants became Protestants, and were welcoming of Henry of Navarre, soon to be Henry IV, in 1585.
Written traces are rarer, but it is likely that it was sold as a national good during the Revolution. It was partially burned as some traces testify, then was consolidated, allowing him to maintain a state of conservation.
In 1971, it was bought by a Mr. Rufino, the current owner who restored it in its entirety.
Today the castle houses a museum dedicated to pastel. A vaulted room contains period documents, fabrics dyed with blue pastel, and old tools for the craft. There's a dryer that could hold up to 100,000 pastel balls called cocagne.
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.