Wies Village Pilgrimage Church

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Steingaden, Germany

Following our visit to Ludwig II’s Linderhof castle we headed toward his other two, which I reported on in the last blog. On the way we turned off down a dead-end country road which led to an unpretentious Church set on a hill. The exterior was rather plain, especially compared to the cathedrals, but I understand extensive restoration has been underway. Not too surprising given its age.

Wikipedia says,

“The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (German: Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by brothers J. B. and Dominikus Zimmermann, the latter of whom lived nearby for the last eleven years of his life. It is located in the foothills of the Alps, in the municipality of Steingaden in the Weilheim-Schongau district, Bavaria, Germany.”

It goes on to tell the story behind it’s founding, but I heard it from Frank first so I’ll tell it in my own words. It seems there was an old wooden figure of a scourged Christ on the spot where the church now stands. One of the village women was reported to have seen tears on the face, and people from around the area began to make a pilgrimage to see the figure. The two brothers designed and built the church to pay homage to Christ and the miracles that were being seen. There was no evidence of the original figure, but the interior of the church is an over-the-top example of rococo art at its highest!

As you open the ancient wooden door and step inside, it literally is breathtaking!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

In addition to the architecture, the Presence in the church is beyond words. It was reminiscent of the Chapel at Nashotah House...steeped by hundreds of years of prayer it was always a place of special reverence for me from the moment I first set foot in it through all the months and years of daily celebrations of matins, mass and evensong. This has not always been the case in several of the cathedrals...ornate but remote. Wies has an intimacy about it even in all the sensory overload.

It was almost anticlimactic to eat lunch at the restaurant just under the hill, but God had provided a day as special as the church so we sat outside, watching the ebb and flow of visitors climbing the hill. As for the meal...it was delicious. As always.

Pictures: Exterior and interior of the church, and a shot of my scrumptious goulash.

Reflections: Don’t know what else I can say about the experience in the church. Spent a little time in meditation and lit a candle in thanksgiving and with prayers for those I knew who needed healing.

The downside is it has become a tourist attraction more than a pilgrimage. When Frank first saw it in 1975, after learning about it in a class he took at UT, it literally sat alone among the farmers' fields. Now there is a large paved parking lot, paved biking and hiking trails crossing the hillsides, two souvenir kiosks and, as we were leaving two tour busses pulled up to add their throngs to the couple of hundred folks who were enjoying the perfect weather for visiting the church just as Frank and I were.

I have to confess. I collect shot glasses from the places I visit. In retrospect it was almost sacrilege, but I now have one from Wieskirchen to add to my collection. Mia Culpa!