In a meadow at the foot of the Ammergau Alps, surrounded by fields, cows and a few farmhouses, stands one of the most extraordinary churches in Europe. From the outside, the Wieskirche looks fairly plain, a white building with a modest tower. Step inside and you are hit by a wave of light, colour and movement: white and gold stucco, pastel frescoes, columns and galleries that seem to float, and a ceiling painting of Christ's return that opens the roof into heaven. It is the masterpiece of the Bavarian Rococo, built between 1745 and 1754 by Dominikus Zimmermann, with frescoes by his brother Johann Baptist, and it was listed by UNESCO in 1983.
The church owes its existence to a miracle. In 1738, a farmer's wife at the Wies, the meadow, noticed tears on the face of a battered wooden figure of the scourged Christ, which the monks of nearby Steingaden had discarded. Pilgrims began to arrive in such numbers that a small chapel was soon too small, and the abbey commissioned the great church. Dominikus Zimmermann was so attached to it that he spent his last years living in a house beside it.
The landscape is pure Bavarian Alpine foothills: rolling meadows, dark spruce forests, moors and lakes, with the limestone peaks of the Ammergau Alps rising to the south. The roads here are popular with riders, linking the Romantic Road through Steingaden with Oberammergau, Ettal and the Graswang valley towards Linderhof palace and on to Austria. They are generally smooth and well maintained, with flowing curves through forest and meadow, though summer weekends bring tour buses, cyclists and motorbike traffic in numbers. Neuschwanstein is less than half an hour away to the southwest.
The church has a big car park and a few kiosks and restaurants nearby serving coffee, cake and Bavarian dishes, perfect for a break. For fuel and a bigger choice, Steingaden is three kilometres away and Peiting, about thirteen kilometres, is the nearest larger town. Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the crowds and to see the interior in the most beautiful light. Remember that it is a working church; services and concerts take place regularly, and quiet respect is expected.