Abbot Albert of Stade and the Via Romea Germanica

The Via Romea Germanica

Abbot Albert was born in Stade in the late 1100s. At that time Stade, roughly 50 km north west of Hamburg, was an important port and trading centre. 

In 1232 Albert, a monk and a chronicler, became the abbot of the Benedictine Monastery in Stade. Not happy with the discipline of the monastery Abbot Albert decided to seek permission for reformation from Pope Gregory IX in Rome, setting off on his pilgrimage in 1236. The Pope approved Abbot Albert's request but on his return the monastery brothers refused to comply so Abbot Albert resigned his position of abbot and in 1240 he joined a Franciscan order, the Minorites, in the Monastery of St Johannis, also in Stade. 

It was after his pilgrimage to Rome that Abbot Albert starting writing his Annales Stadenses, a chronicle of important political and ecclesiastic events, and it was in this chronicle he wrote of the Melior Via - the best pilgrimage route to Rome. He listed his main stopping points - the map above has included many of them. Abbot Albert's Annales Stadenses, nearly 800 years old, is housed in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.

   

A page in Abbot Albert's Annales Stadenses

Over the years, throughout centuries, countless pilgrims have followed Abbot's Albert's Melior Via, the best way to Rome. It is now known as the Via Romea Germanica.  

The official distance of the Via Romea Germanica, running from northern Germany, across Austria, into Italy and down to Rome, is 2,200 kilometres, although many of those who have walked the complete route have said that this is a conservative distance - they recorded greater distances. 

We have no intention of walking to Rome as the distance is too great for us plus it takes longer than the 90 days in the Schengen zone allowed to those who live outside it - a German woman who walked it last year took 118 days. 

We will end our pilgrimage at the the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua in Italy. How far we walk and how we get to Padua is unknown as we're not sure if we'll capable of walking day after day, wearing our packs. We are simply going to set off from Stade, approximately 50 km north-west of Hamburg, and see what happens.

The Via Romea Germanica route marker.