Camino Slovenia (Maribor)

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Maribor, Lent on the Drava / Janževski Vrh near Lovrenc na Pohorju (municipality of Podvelka)
• Length: 40.3 km
• Duration: 2 stages (Camino Ninja division), easily done in 3 days too
• Elevation: ↗ 933 m / ↘ 755 m — no valley walk: between Ruše and Gračanovo the route climbs more than 300 metres in seven kilometres
• Highest point: 648 m at km 25.9 on the northern slope of the Pohorje near Gračanovo; lowest point 252 m at km 0.6 on the Drava in Maribor
• Stages: 2 — Camino Ninja system based on our waypoints; Lindenthal's description does not divide the Slovenian section into day stages
• Landscape: Drava valley, vineyard slopes below the Pohorje, the Calvary hill Pekrska gorca, northern slope of the Pohorje (forest, over 70 per cent), Ribniško-Lovrenška valley
• Operator: no Slovenian operating association for this section; route description by Peter Lindenthal, „Auf dem Jakobsweg durch Süd-Österreich" (2002), as the Slovenian part of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg
• Waymarking: none — „In Slowenien ist der Jakobsweg nicht markiert und kann daher nur mit Hilfe von Routenbeschreibungen und Karten begangen werden."; GPS track essential
• Traces of St James: one St James church — sv. Jakob Starejši in Limbuš (parish 1387, core around 1300, high altar 1708); no St James church in Maribor, the cathedral is sv. Janez Krstnik; near Puščava an information point „Jakobova pot"
• Accommodation: no pilgrim hostel — inns, private rooms, apartments in Maribor, Ruše, Lovrenc na Pohorju; at the finish the smithy Kovačija pri Kovaču by arrangement
• Connecting routes: feeder Jakobsweg Graz ends in Maribor; continuation Jakobsweg Kärnten from Dravograd, about 35 km beyond our endpoint
• Best time: April to October, best in May, June and September

Overview

Forty kilometres, one St James: the way begins below the cathedral of St John the Baptist in Maribor, ends below the St John's church of Janževski Vrh, and in between stands exactly one St James church, in Limbuš at kilometre 10.4. Yet this corridor is called a Way of St James — because Peter Lindenthal described it in 2002 as the Slovenian part of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg, „mehr als 77 Kilometer immer entlang des Drautales" from Maribor to Lavamünd, and because although the official Slovenian network does not include it, the founding association of the Slovenian friends of St James had it in its programme as early as 2000: „von Graz über Maribor durch Kärnten". You walk from the Stara trta in Lent, the world's oldest fruit-bearing vine, along below the Pohorje via Pekre with its Calvary hill, Limbuš and Bistrica ob Dravi to Ruše, the pilgrimage site of Maria Rast, then climb for seven kilometres to 648 metres at Gračanovo, drop to the wilderness church of Puščava, 45 metres long, in the middle of the forest, and come via Lovrenc na Pohorju on the Radoljnja to Janževski Vrh, where an old bridge crosses the Velka and our route ends at 445 metres.

Frankly: there is no waymarking here, no hostel, no stamp, no association — the route description itself says „es fehlt daher auch jegliche Pilgerinfrastruktur" —, and the route stops 35 kilometres short of Dravograd, where the Jakobsweg Kärnten begins. What there is: stations in Limbuš, Bistrica, Ruše and Podvelka, so you can get on and off at will; two pilgrimage churches that belonged to a Carinthian abbey; a Latin school that had 6,600 pupils and left not a single sheet of text; and a charter of 1091 in which Ruše and the land of Lovrenc are named for the first time. The way does not lead to a shrine. It leads to the landlord — and that, read correctly, is its point.

Other Names

With us this section is called Camino Slovenia (Maribor) — a Camino Ninja system, because it stands as a separate, short connecting route between two long chains. In the literature it is not called that: there it is the Slovenian part of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg, which Peter Lindenthal reconstructed from church dedications, pilgrimage sites and old roads and published in 2002 in „Auf dem Jakobsweg durch Süd-Österreich"; his description runs via Ruše, Puščava, Podvelka and Vuzenica to Lavamünd. In Slovenian the Way of St James is called Jakobova pot or Pot sv. Jakoba — but the official network of the Društvo prijateljev poti sv. Jakoba v Sloveniji has no branch here: it looks after the Šentjakobska pot from the Croatian border via Ljubljana to Trieste and the Prekmursko-štajerska veja, which runs via Ptuj 30 kilometres to the south-east. Still: near Puščava stands an information point that is called exactly „Jakobova pot".

And because the way runs through old Lower Styria, almost every place carries a second, German name: Maribor is Marburg an der Drau, the Pohorje the Bachergebirge, the pilgrimage church in Ruše is Maria Rast, the one in Puščava Maria in der Wüste. If you read Lindenthal's book you find the places under these names; if you take the train, under the Slovenian ones.

Ideal For – and Less So For

Ideal if you have a weekend and want to close a gap: 40.3 kilometres, two days, one St James church, two pilgrimage churches and a climb to 648 metres with a view over the Drava valley. Ideal if you want relaxed logistics — the train back to Maribor stops at almost every stage boundary, so you can get off or on at any time. Ideal for readers of history: a chain of charters from 1091 to 1784 that you can walk in a weekend, plus the world's oldest fruit-bearing vine at the start. And ideal as a continuation: coming off the Jakobsweg Graz, you stand in Maribor with the last step of one way on the first of the other.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you expect pilgrim infrastructure. There is no waymarking — not a single signpost leads from Maribor to Janževski Vrh —, no pilgrim hostel, no stamp system, no association; the route description itself says it bluntly: „Die Gegend ist bislang touristisch kaum erschlossen und es fehlt daher auch jegliche Pilgerinfrastruktur." Without a GPS track you stand at forest junctions and guess. Not for you if you need a destination: Janževski Vrh is a scattered hillside settlement with a smithy, a shop and a station two kilometres further down, and Dravograd is still 35 kilometres away, which our route does not cover. And not for you if you think 933 metres of ascent in 40 kilometres is a valley walk — gaps and climbs like these are planned away beforehand, not on the road.

Route & Landscape

You set off in Maribor on the Drava, at 255 metres in the Lent district, with the Stara trta on the house wall. The way heads west out of the city, along below the northern slope of the Pohorje: via Pekre with the Pekrska gorca, the 351-metre Calvary hill outside the city, then to Limbuš — where the only St James church of this way stands, sv. Jakob Starejši, first documented in 1387. On via Bistrica ob Dravi and Bezena the way stays on the valley floor between river, railway and vineyard slope until, after 18.7 kilometres, Ruše comes: the old pilgrimage site of Maria Rast, documented since 1091, with the largest church in the valley and the 43-metre water tower of a nitrogen factory from 1917 right beside it.

Beyond Ruše the way becomes a mountain path. In seven kilometres it climbs more than three hundred metres to the hillside hamlet of Gračanovo, where the highest point lies at kilometre 25.9 at 648 metres — below you the Drava valley, above you the forest that covers more than 70 per cent of the Pohorje. Then the way drops via Činžat and reaches, at Puščava at 339 metres, the pilgrimage church of Maria in der Wüste, 45 metres long, 14.75 metres high, in the middle of the forest. The rest is a gentle rise: up to Lovrenc na Pohorju on the Radoljnja and across the slope to Janževski Vrh, where a centuries-old bridge crosses the Velka stream and the way ends at 445 metres. Surface: city asphalt and cycle path to Limbuš, village roads and valley paths to Ruše, forest and farm tracks on the Pohorje slope, no exposed terrain.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

We divide the 40.3 kilometres into two stages with the boundary at Ruše — Camino Ninja system, every stage boundary a waypoint from our route data, every kilometre figure the difference between two waypoints, the sum exactly the 40.3 kilometres of our route; there is no official stage division for the Slovenian section. The distribution is remarkable: stage 1 is a flat valley walk, stage 2 carries almost the entire climb.

1. Maribor – Ruše (18.7 km) — Lent, Stara trta, Pekre with the Pekrska gorca, St James church of Limbuš, Bistrica ob Dravi, Bezena; valley floor to Maria Rast, stations at Limbuš, Bistrica and Ruše.
2. Ruše – Janževski Vrh (21.6 km) — climb to 648 m at Gračanovo (km 25.9), Činžat, pilgrimage church of Puščava, Lovrenc na Pohorju, final slope to the Velka bridge; return from Podvelka station.

If you have three days, put the second boundary at Lovrenc na Pohorju: 18.7 / 14.1 / 7.5 kilometres — more time for Puščava, but a very short last day with beds and bus in Lovrenc. Technically nothing is difficult; navigation is demanding, because nothing is marked — plan with a GPS track and expect a slower pace between Ruše and Gračanovo than the kilometres suggest. The railway, on the other hand, is practical: Limbuš, Bistrica ob Dravi, Ruše, Fala, Ruta, Ožbalt and Podvelka all lie on the Maribor–Prevalje line, so you can cut the way almost any way you like. And if you want, you can walk it all in one very long summer day — the climb comes at kilometre 26, the train waits in Podvelka.

One St James in Forty Kilometres — and the Landlord at the Other End of the Drava

Above the main portal of the Benedictine abbey of St. Paul im Lavanttal, 200 kilometres upstream in Carinthia, it stands in stone: „ABBATIA S. PAULI APOSTOLI" — „FUNDATA ANO 1091 CAL. MAY". Around 1 May 1091 Engelbert I of Spanheim founded the monastery, and its founding endowment included a piece of land that the charter calls „pusto pokrajino Radomlje imenovano", the desolate land called Radomlje: today's Lovrenc na Pohorju. The stream on which Lovrenc lies is still called Radoljnja — the name from the founding charter still runs through the village. In the same year 1091 and the same context Ruše appears for the first time, as „Rouste", the people by the ditch. Lovrenc became the „največjo zaokroženo šentpavelsko posest", the largest contiguous estate of the abbey, a market in 1222, attested as „trg" in 1381; and when in 1622 the abbot of St. Paul, Hieronim Markstaler, had a church built in the forest above the Drava — „v letih 1622 – 1627, dal zgraditi to cerkev Šentpavelski opat Hieronim Markstaler" —, Puščava came into being, Maria in der Wüste, 45 metres long and one of the largest churches in Slovenia. On 7 October 1782 Joseph II's court decree dissolved the abbey, and with it ended „tudi njegovo gospostvo nad Lovrenškim", its lordship over Lovrenc too; in 1784 Puščava became a parish of its own: „Leta 1784 je bila kuracija Device Marije v Puščavi povzdignjena v župnijo." For almost 700 years the second half of this way belonged to a monastery that the Jakobsweg Kärnten passes today. So this way does not lead to a shrine. It leads to the administrative centre — whoever walks on arrives at the landlord's.

In between lies Ruše, and Ruše has the most tellable story on the way. In 1645 parish priest Jurij Kozine founded a six-year Latin school here, the Ruška latinska šola; in 113 years more than 6,600 pupils attended it — „V njej se je skozi vsa leta šolalo nad 6600 dijakov." —, sons of the Attems, Herberstein, Tattenbach and Thurn families alongside over 300 locals. From 14 September 1680 Ruše performed theatre: rector Luka Jamnik had a stage of greenery built in the churchyard, the play of 1706, „De Joviniano imperatore mire correcto", had several thousand spectators, and performances ran until 1722. Of 42 years of theatre and 113 years of teaching not a single sheet of text survives — only the chronicle of Jožef Avguštin Meznerič. And the school died of the city where you started: „Ko so v Mariboru ustanovili jezuitsko gimnazijo, je število dijakov na ruški gimnaziji začelo upadati." Maribor founded a Jesuit grammar school, Ruše emptied out, and in 1758/1760 it was over. Today you walk in exactly the opposite direction — from the city that drained the village, to the village.

And St James? Frankly: Maribor's cathedral is dedicated to St John the Baptist, no St James church or confraternity is to be found in the city, and Janževski Vrh at the end carries another St John — the name comes from the dialect „Janž". In between lies exactly one St James: sv. Jakob Starejši in Limbuš, kilometre 10.4, parish 1387, core around 1300, high altar 1708. No shell find, no pilgrim badge, no hospice on this stretch, and the region's only Santiago pilgrim, Ulrik II Celjski, who rode to Compostela in spring 1430 with sixty knights and 32,000 gold ducats borrowed from his father, is documented for Lower Styria, not for this route — the Counts of Cilli plundered Lovrenc in 1439 and 1442, that is their trace here. What makes this corridor a Way of St James is not a church dedication but a research decision of 2002 and an association programme of 2000, plus a single information point near Puščava called „Jakobova pot". A way that did not inherit its name but was given it — and carries it, because the Drava valley has had a railway since 1863, a charter since 1091 and a vine at the start for 400 years.

Highlights Along the Way

• Lent and the Stara trta, Maribor — over 400-year-old Žametovka vine on the house wall, according to the Guinness Book the world's oldest noble vine still bearing fruit; 35 to 55 kilos of grapes a year, yielding only 100 bottles of 2.5 dl in vessels by Oskar Kogoj; an offshoot grows in Graz.
• Mariborski flosarji — raft trip on the Drava from Koblarjev zaliv to Lent, 2.3 km in 1 h 15 min, May to October; „Zapisi iz 13. stoletja pa pričajo o splavarjenju skozi Maribor" — rafting through Maribor is documented since the 13th century.
• Pekrska gorca (351 m), Slovenska Kalvarija — Way of the Cross with four chapels, a cross on the summit since 1664, church of Our Lady of Sorrows from about 1830/35; from 1955 into the 1970s a 60-metre ski jump designed by Stanko Bloudek stood beside it — praying and jumping on the same hill.
• Parish church sv. Jakob Starejši, Limbuš — the only St James church on the way: Gothic core around 1300, parish first documented 1387, high altar 1708, consecrated after renovation in 1870.
• Pilgrimage church Marijinega imena, Ruše (Maria Rast) — village documented in 1091 as „Rouste", church 1387, destroyed by the Ottomans in 1532 and rebuilt; church festival on 12 September; by tradition „Že v desetem stoletju so Ruše znane kot slavna božja pot".
• Ruška latinska šola — founded 1645 by parish priest Jurij Kozine, in operation until 1758/1760, over 6,600 pupils in 113 years, from 1680 with its own theatre in the churchyard.
• Industrial monuments of Ruše — water tower of the nitrogen factory of 1917 (43 m), Smolnik stone viaduct of 1862, Falski grad from the 12th century.
• HE Fala — the oldest hydroelectric plant on the Drava, museum in the old machine hall with a preserved Francis turbine. Frankly: visits only for groups of seven or more by appointment, „Ob nedeljah in praznikih je muzej zaprt", closed entirely in July and August.
• Pilgrimage church Device Marije v Puščavi (Maria in der Wüste) — built 1622 to 1627 by the abbot of St. Paul, Hieronim Markstaler, enlarged 1672, parish 1784; 45 m long, 15 m wide, 14.75 m high, in the middle of the forest above the Drava.
• Lovrenc na Pohorju — estate of St. Paul since 1091, market rights 1222, attested as „trg" in 1381; 18th-century church of St Lawrence over a Romanesque predecessor, glassworks and iron hammers until the mid-19th century; called Sv. Lovrenc na Pohorju until 1952.
• Janževski Vrh — late Gothic church sv. Janez Krstnik from the first half of the 16th century at 915 m, a good 470 metres above the end of the way; centuries-old bridge over the Velka, the over 200-year-old smithy Kovačija pri Kovaču.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

The connection is clear: in Maribor the Jakobsweg Graz ends, the Styrian section of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg — from the St James church in Thal near Graz through Graz's old town, down the Mur, across the border at Mureck and through the Slovenske gorice to Maribor and Malečnik. Coming from there, you stand with the last step of one way on the first of the other; between Malečnik and the start in Lent lies a city bus ride or an hour on foot through Maribor. And the vine connects both ways: the offshoot of the Stara trta stands in Graz, the mother plant here.

If you travel in directly, Maribor is a convenient starting point: a station on the old Southern Railway, direct trains from Graz and Ljubljana, buses from all directions. A note for planners: the Camino Slovenia (Prekmurje-Styria), the official Slovenian branch of the Jakobova pot, passes via Ptuj about 30 kilometres to the south-east — there is no designated connecting route from there to Maribor. If you want to walk both ways, take the train between Ptuj and Maribor.

Continuing the Pilgrimage?

Yes — but with a gap you need to know about. Upstream, the Jakobsweg Kärnten begins in Dravograd and follows the Drava to Lienz; from there the Jakobsweg Osttirol, Jakobsweg Südtirol and Jakobsweg Brenner continue until the Südösterreichischer flows into the Jakobsweg Österreich in Innsbruck. But between our endpoint Janževski Vrh and Dravograd lie about 35 kilometres that our route does not cover.

These 35 kilometres are not wilderness, only undescribed terrain: Lindenthal's description continues via Podvelka and Vuzenica to Lavamünd. In practice that means: you walk the stretch on foot along the Drava — Podvelka, Vuhred, Vuzenica, Muta, Dravograd lie one after another within a day's reach — or you take the train from Podvelka to Dravograd and start the Carinthian way there. Both are legitimate, both are planned in advance. Incidentally, if you are looking for a continuously marked connection Maribor–Dravograd, you will find it only on the other side of the river: the Planinska pot čez Kozjak, 110 kilometres in five days, since 1969, with 17 stamp points — a mountain hiking trail with no connection to St James whatsoever.

Preparation & Practicalities

Best time: April to October. In high summer the valley floor between Maribor and Ruše is hot with little shade, while the Pohorje slope is almost continuous forest — May, June and September are the better months, and in September the grape harvest comes too; in winter the climb to Gračanovo is arduous in snow without a trail. Navigation: first things first — take a GPS track. This section is not marked, the route description says so itself: „In Slowenien ist der Jakobsweg nicht markiert und kann daher nur mit Hilfe von Routenbeschreibungen und Karten begangen werden." The easiest way to plan stages and accommodation is directly in the Camino Ninja app. Credential: you do not need a pilgrim passport here to get in anywhere — no hostel demands it, and there is no stamp network. If you want to walk the chain onwards, get one in advance anyway: the Društvo prijateljev poti sv. Jakoba v Sloveniji issues a romarski potni list; the association publishes no price, enquire by e-mail. Realistically you get stamps in Limbuš, Ruše, Puščava and Lovrenc — if someone is at the parish office during office hours. Language: Slovenian; German is often understood in the Drava valley.

Accommodation: inns, private rooms and apartments in Maribor, Ruše and Lovrenc na Pohorju; there are no pilgrim hostels. At the finish the over 200-year-old smithy Kovačija pri Kovaču in Janževski Vrh rents out a kovaška soba, a smith's room with a smith's breakfast — by arrangement, so call ahead; 150 metres down the valley is the shop and inn Uran. Food: shops and gostilne in Maribor, Limbuš, Ruše and Lovrenc; nothing between Ruše and Puščava — carry a day's food for stage 2. Packing list: shoes for asphalt and forest track, rain gear, poles for the climb to Gračanovo, sun protection for the valley floor, offline maps, power bank. Pack your ID: you are in the Schengen area, but the Austrian border is near and has at times been checked again.

What the Route Costs

You pay in euros, and Slovenian prices are somewhat below Austrian ones. Because there is no hostel network, you pay normal room prices: reckon with €50 to 80 per day, cheapest in private rooms and apartments in Ruše and Lovrenc na Pohorju, most expensive in the centre of Maribor. Because the way lasts only two days, the fixed costs weigh more than the daily rates: the train back from Podvelka to Maribor, a dinner in Lent, perhaps an evening on the Drava before you start. The sights are cheap or free (as of September 2026): the Stara trta from outside costs nothing, the museum in the Hiša Stare trte €9.50, a wine tasting €7 to 9 in the basic versions; a raft trip with the Mariborski flosarji from €23 per person in a group and from €27 for individuals and families, with a rafters' meal and live music, booking at least two days ahead; all churches on the way are free.

Realistic daily budget: €45–60 frugal with a private room and self-catering; €60–85 mid-range with an inn and dinner; €90–130 comfortable with a hotel in Maribor and a raft trip. For the two stages that is roughly €120–250 on the ground, plus travel there and back. Two ways to save: only one night in Maribor, and the way back by train instead of taxi.

Getting There

To the start (Maribor): Maribor lies on the old Southern Railway and can be reached from Graz in about 1 h 45 to 2 h, from Ljubljana in around two and a half hours; coaches stop at the bus station next to the railway station. From the station it is about twenty minutes on foot down to Lent on the Drava, where the way begins. If you come from Austria by car, you drive via Spielfeld-Straß.

Along the way and from the finish (Janževski Vrh): the Koroška proga, the Drava valley railway Maribor–Prevalje, opened in 1863 as the Maribor–Dravograd–Klagenfurt line, stops at Limbuš, Bistrica ob Dravi, Ruše, Fala, Ruta, Ožbalt and Podvelka — the station a few kilometres down the valley from the finish, from where regional trains return to Maribor in around one and a half to two hours. Alternatively go back to Lovrenc na Pohorju, from where Arriva buses run via Selnica ob Dravi and Ruše to Maribor. Note: the Sveti Danijel–state border section has been under reconstruction since 2024 — check the current timetable before your return.

• Rail Slovenia: potniski.sz.si — Slovenske železnice, Maribor – Limbuš – Bistrica ob Dravi – Ruše – Fala – Podvelka – Dravograd – Prevalje
• Rail Austria: oebb.at — Graz – Spielfeld-Straß – Maribor
• Bus: arriva.si — Maribor – Ruše – Selnica ob Dravi – Lovrenc na Pohorju
• Maribor city transport: marprom.si — lines to Limbuš, Pekre and Radvanje
• Accommodation at the finish: prikovacu.si — Kovačija pri Kovaču, Janževski Vrh