Wies
Encyclopedia
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann
Dominikus Zimmermann
Dominikus Zimmermann was a German Rococo architect and stuccoist.-Life:Dominikus Zimmermann was born in Gaispoint near Wessobrunn in 1685 and became a Baumeister and a stuccoist. His older brother Johann Baptist Zimmermann was an architect and a frescoist...
, who for the last eleven years of his life lived nearby. It is located in the foothills of the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, in the municipality of Steingaden
Steingaden
Steingaden is a town and municipality in the Weilheim-Schongau district of Upper Bavaria, Germany. It is the site of the 12th-century Steingaden Abbey and the Wies Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.-Geography:...
in the Weilheim-Schongau
Weilheim-Schongau
Weilheim-Schongau is a Kreis in the south of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are Landsberg, Starnberg, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Ostallgäu.-Geography:...
district, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
In 1738, tears were seen on a dilapidated wooden figure of the Scourged Saviour. This miracle resulted in a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
rush to see the sculpture. In 1740, a small chapel was built to house the statue but it was soon realized that the building would be too small for the number of pilgrims it attracted, and so Steingaden Abbey
Steingaden Abbey
Steingaden Abbey was a Premonstratensian monastery in Steingaden in Bavaria, Germany.-History:Dedicated to John the Baptist, the abbey was founded in 1147 as a Premonstratensian house by Welf VI, third son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, and brother of Duke Henry the Proud...
decided to commission a separate shrine. Many who have prayed in front of the statue of Jesus on the altar, have claimed that people have been miraculously cured of their diseases, which has made this church even more of a pilgrimage site.
Construction took place between 1745 and 1754, and the interior was decorated with frescoes and with stuccowork in the tradition of the Wessobrunner School
Wessobrunner School
The Wessobrunner School is the name for a group of Baroque stucco-workers that, beginning at the end of the 17th century, developed in the Benedictine Wessobrunn Abbey in Bavaria, Germany....
. "Everything was done throughout the church to make the supernatural visible. Sculpture and murals combined to unleash the divine in visible form".
There is a popular belief that the Bavarian government planned to sell or demolish the rococo masterpiece during the secularization of Bavaria
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
at the beginning of the 19th century, and that only protests from the local farmers saved it from destruction. Available sources however document that the responsible state commission clearly advocated the continuation of Wies as a pilgrimage site, even in spite of economic objections from the abbot of Steingaden.
The Wieskirche was added to the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage List in 1983 and underwent extensive restoration between 1985 and 1991.