Wieskirche

Wieskirche is famous for its Jesus Christ statue that bled tears in the 1738. According to HM, The statue used to sit in a woman's attic until its discovery, then it had its tiny wooden shrine (which I mistakenly took to be a guard house and so deliberately excluded from the photo).

Look at the pretty horsies romping outside the church

But too many pilgrims wanted to see the miracle, and so the Brothers Zimmermann built the magnificient church in rocco style, describing the life and death of Jesus Christ. The church has been recognised as a UNESCO heritage site, and I have to say of all the churches I have seen, it has one of the most awesome architecture, frescoes and ceiling I have seen.

We were lucky to catch part of the Friday mass.

If you look through all my photos, you will also notice that I have an obsession with the pipe organs in all the churches I saw even though I can't play a tune. The church does not use candles anymore, which is why you can see the plaster paintings in all their glory.

Till today, there are many people who make their way here to either admire the architecture, or pray for a miracle. To the left of the photo (or right of the shrine) is a gallery of sorts where you can examine all the photos of the people who were seeking a miracle, mostly babies and children. There was a photo of a US marine who died in Afghanistan, which was very sad with the words "gone but not forgotten"). The other side of the shrine are for those people who want to pray for their miracle in privacy.

Check out the pews. Such effort that went into even carving them!

Since it is a Catholic church, there were plenty of confession booths for all the naughty Germans and pilgrims seeking forgiveness.

Above each of them was a pictorial depiction of a biblical story. The one above is my personal favorite, the prodigal son returns. 

The church is surrounded by pretty farms, inns and footpaths leading to undulating mountains in the background. Awesome views all around. You could spend the whole day here with the family, hiking, visiting the church and eating at the nearby restaurant which has a specialty known as wieskücherl. Onkel H said that they knew the dog (which lived in the B&B below) well, because when he was a puppy he used to tag along with their dog. Now this dog is an old dog which likes to visit the wieskürcherl restaurant for a bit of mittagessen.

Imagine the beautiful church with the even more gorgeous mountain landscape as a backdrop

The old dog in this picture likes to visit the restaurant at the same time everyday for a tasty morsel

Check out the flies settling on the cow and the fence!

Pferd grazing on the field next to the church

Address: Wies 12, Steingaden, Germany

Phone: 08862 932930