The Wieskirche is a splendid Rococo church, built in 1745, and is a place of pilgrimage because a miracle happened there in 1738.
Legend says that in 1730, two monks of the Order of Prémont (an order founded by Duke Welf VI in 1147, and which existed until 1803), from the Steingaden monastery, made a statue of Christ entitled the "Tortured Savior" from various pieces of wood for the Good Friday procession.
They covered the figure's limbs with linen and painted it with red paint. Many people disliked the statue, considering it too "bloody."
Because of this, the statue was thrown into the monastery's attic, and in 1734, it disappeared.
Just four years later, a peasant woman found the statue in the forest, took it to her farm, and began to revere it.
In that same year, the "miracle" occurred: the peasant woman saw tears on the face of the "Tortured Savior."
A large number of pilgrims came from places like Switzerland, Bohemia, Tyrol, and Hungary to the chapel that was built on the peasant woman's family farm to see the statue.
As the number of pilgrims increased even more, the abbot of Steingaden decided in 1745 to build a large pilgrim church on the site where the statue was found.
The architect Dominikus Zimmermann, already 60 years old and an expert in the Rococo style, managed to crown his career with the construction of the world-famous Wieskirche. His brother, Johann Baptist Zimmermann, court painter to the Elector of Munich, painted the marvelous frescoes on the ceiling, which are surely one of the most beautiful works in the Rococo style in the world.
The great altar is splendid. Its columns appear to be made of marble, but in reality, they are only painted to look that way. Several parts of the church, such as the ceiling, were made of wood, but painted to have a more chic and different style. The ceiling is also almost entirely flat, but because of its frescoes, it appears to be rounded. But there are also several pieces made with gold plating, such as around the organ.
The church has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 and currently receives about one million visitors a year.
The location of the church is beautiful, surrounded by nature and mountains. To get there, visitors travel along narrow roads with many curves.
