Fodor's Expert Review Pilgrimage Church of Wies

This church, also known simply as Wieskirche (church in the meadow), is a glorious example of German rococo architecture, in an Alpine meadow just off the Romantic Road. Its yellow-and-white walls and steep red roof are set off by the dark backdrop of the Trauchgauer Mountains. The architect Dominicus Zimmermann, former mayor of Landsberg and creator of much of that town's architecture, built the church in 1745 on the spot where six years earlier a local woman claimed to see tears running down the face of a picture of Christ. Visit it on a bright day if you can, when light streaming through its high windows displays the full glory of the glittering gold and white interior. A complex oval plan is animated by brilliantly colored stuccowork, statues, and gilt. A luminous ceiling fresco completes the decoration. Concerts are presented in the church from the end of June through the beginning of August.