Jakobsweg Nijmegen – Köln

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Nijmegen (Netherlands) → Cologne (Cathedral)
• Length: 206.6 km
• Elevation: 447 m of ascent, 419 m of descent
• Highest point: 67 m on the Fürstenberg near Birten (km 69.3)
• Stages: 9 (the operator divides it into 10)
• Duration: 9–10 days
• Difficulty: easy – flat as a table, but long days on hard surfaces
• Operator: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) and Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft, series „Wege der Jakobspilger im Rheinland“, Volume 4
• Waymarking: stylised yellow scallop shell on a blue background, pointing towards Santiago; changes of direction by additional arrows, the shell itself is never rotated
• Best time: March to October; walkable all year, little shade in high summer

Overview

This route has a highest point of 67 metres, and it is a legionary camp. On the Fürstenberg near Birten, kilometre 69.3, stood Vetera castra, from around 12 BC home to two legions at times, destroyed in the Batavian revolt of AD 70 – you walk up the „summit“ in ten minutes. That says almost everything about the profile: 447 metres of ascent over 206.6 kilometres, dykes, river meadows, farm tracks, towns in between. What carries this route is not the landscape but what stands in it: two pilgrimage sites that began with a tree, nine late Gothic carved altarpieces in a single church, a cathedral that took 281 years to build, a Roman colonial city – and at the end the city that was itself one of the greatest pilgrimage destinations in medieval Europe.

The route is an operator's route, not a construct: Volume 4 of the series „Wege der Jakobspilger im Rheinland“ (Ways of the St. James pilgrims in the Rhineland), which the Landschaftsverband Rheinland and the Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft researched and waymarked after the Way of St. James was declared the first European Cultural Route in 1987 – more than 1,400 kilometres in North Rhine-Westphalia, this one running internally as „Weg 4“. It begins in Nijmegen, where the Dutch Jacobswegen end, and ends at Cologne Cathedral, where four German Ways of St. James converge. It is the bridge between two networks, and almost every stage town has a railway station.

Other Names

Officially it is named after the book title Wege der Jakobspilger im Rheinland, Band 4 – von Nimwegen über Kleve und Xanten nach Köln; in the LVR network it runs as Weg 4. Parishes and pilgrims say Jakobsweg Nimwegen – Köln, Jakobsweg am Niederrhein or Niederrheinischer Jakobsweg. It carries no invented name such as „Via Rhenana“ – fitting for a route that would rather name its towns than itself. Don't confuse it with the Jakobsweg Nijmegen–Maastricht, which starts in the same city but heads south past Germany on the Dutch side.

Ideal For – and Less So For

This route is for you if art and history tempt you more than metres of ascent: over 206.6 kilometres you pass the Stevenskerk, the Kranenburg Cross pilgrimage, the Schwanenburg, the Kalkar altarpieces, Marienbaum, Xanten Cathedral, the Roman park, the Quirinus-Münster, Zons and the Shrine of the Three Kings – and you walk all of it with 447 metres of ascent. It makes a good first Way of St. James, works for families with older children and for anyone arriving without a car and walking in sections, since every stage town except Kalkar has a railway station.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you are looking for wilderness. The Lower Rhine is a densely settled cultural landscape; between Moers, Uerdingen and Neuss you walk past a chemical park, a bypass road and industrial estates, and the share of asphalt and paved dyke paths is high. Nor is it for you if you expect the Spanish network of hostels: there are no classic pilgrim hostels on the Lower Rhine, you sleep in guesthouses, hotels and monastery guest quarters at German prices.

Route & Landscape

You start in Nijmegen, settled since 19 BC and thus the oldest city in the Netherlands, and leave it through the Ooijpolder landscape via Persingen and Beek into the green border zone of Zyfflich and Wyler. In Kranenburg stands the Cross pilgrimage church, in Kleve the Schwanenburg; then you follow the edge of the Lower Rhine heights to Kalkar, and from here on the Rhine dictates everything. Via the pilgrimage village of Marienbaum and the meadows near Wardt and Lüttingen you reach Xanten, brush the highest point on the Fürstenberg and walk via Winnenthal and Menzelen-Ost into Rheinberg, the old customs town of Electoral Cologne.

The second part is more urban: Moers, the fortress town of the House of Orange, the leap across the Rhine to Uerdingen, then along the left bank via Strümp and Meerbusch to Neuss and its Quirinus-Münster. From here the river accompanies you to the end – Grimlinghausen, the customs fortress of Zons, Dormagen, Worringen, Rheinkassel, Merkenich, Nippes, Cathedral. Between 7 and 67 metres above sea level the profile stays flat; what challenges you are the kilometres and the surface, not the gradients.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

Nine days of 17 to 30 kilometres; the operator divides it into ten. Technically there is nothing to it – no climb of more than 60 metres in one go, no ford, no rock –, what counts are the long hard surfaces: dyke crests, cycle paths, farm tracks. Take shoes with cushioned soles and plan more breaks than the elevation figures suggest. Kilometres from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 206.6 km.

1. Nijmegen → Kleve (29.8 km) – Via Persingen, Zyfflich and Wyler into the border region, to Kranenburg and its Cross pilgrimage church, then along the Reichswald to Kleve.
2. Kleve → Kalkar (17.3 km) – The shortest stage, deliberately so: at the end wait nine surviving carved altarpieces in St. Nicolai and Germany's oldest Brotherhood of St. James.
3. Kalkar → Xanten (20.4 km) – Via Appeldorn and the pilgrimage village of Marienbaum, then through the Rhine meadows via Wardt and Lüttingen into the Roman city.
4. Xanten → Rheinberg (20.5 km) – Over the Fürstenberg near Birten, the highest point of the route (67 m), on via Winnenthal and Menzelen-Ost into the old customs town.
5. Rheinberg → Moers (21.3 km) – Close to the Rhine over the Orsoyer Berg into the count's town of the House of Orange.
6. Moers → Uerdingen (19.4 km) – The industrial stage: along the edge of the Ruhr and across the Rhine into the Krefeld district.
7. Uerdingen → Neuss (27.1 km) – Via Strümp and Meerbusch along the left bank of the Rhine to the Quirinus-Münster.
8. Neuss → Dormagen (26.2 km) – Via Grimlinghausen and Sankt Peter to the medieval customs fortress of Zons and on to Dormagen.
9. Dormagen → Köln (24.6 km) – Via Worringen, Langel, Rheinkassel and Merkenich through Nippes to the Cathedral.

A Glass of Wine as a Pilgrim's Duty

At kilometre 47.1 you stand in Kalkar before St. Nicolai, and the parish states without ceremony: „Gegründet um 1477 gilt die Kalkarer Jakobus-Bruderschaft als älteste ununterbrochen bestehende Jakobus-Bruderschaft Deutschlands.“ – founded around 1477, the Kalkar Brotherhood of St. James is regarded as the oldest continuously existing Brotherhood of St. James in Germany. An altar of St. James is documented here as early as 1386, almost a century before the brotherhood; today's altar, carved by Dries Holthuis in the late 15th century, shows James not as a wanderer but as a resting pilgrim. The brotherhood owns a drinking vessel from 1619 and hands down, from a 13th-century pilgrim's handbook, the duty „abends einen Schoppen guten Weines zu trinken, um für den kommenden Weg hinreichend gestärkt zu sein“ – to drink a glass of good wine in the evening so as to be sufficiently fortified for the road ahead. The explanation from the Emmerich guild of St. James is sober: Hanseatic trade on the Lower Rhine was above all wine trade, and James was the patron saint of coopers. Devotion to St. James arrived with the barrels.

For centuries the destination mattered more than the route. Ever since Rainald von Dassel brought the bones of the Three Kings from Milan to Cologne in 1164 in 43 days – around 33 kilometres a day, almost exactly one stage of this route –, Cologne was itself a pilgrimage destination; possessing the relics forced the start of the Gothic cathedral in 1248, and the chronicle notes: „Seit jener Zeit begann Köln mehr zuzunehmen an Ruhm und Ansehen.“ – from that time on Cologne began to grow in fame and standing. Four Cologne churches held relics of St. James, and from 1406 the cathedral had its own Brotherhood of St. James with a chapel in the choir ambulatory. And from Cologne, in November 1496, the knight Arnold von Harff set out, walked Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago in one journey and returned in October 1499 – the starting point of his journey is the end point of yours. It did not save Cologne's church of St. James on the Waidmarkt, however: in 1825 it was demolished to build the Georgstraße.

Highlights Along the Way

• Stevenskerk, Nijmegen (km 0) – consecrated on 7 September 1272 by Albertus Magnus, Protestant from 1591: around thirty altars removed, almost all stone figures beheaded; bombed in 1944, reopened in 1969.
• Valkhof, Nijmegen – on Roman foundations Charlemagne built a palace in 777, Frederick Barbarossa turned it into a castle in 1155; the chapels still stand.
• Collegiate and pilgrimage church of Kranenburg (km 18.0) – in 1308 a crucifix was found inside a felled tree; „historisch nachweisbar ist die Kreuzverehrung in Kranenburg seit dem Ende des 14. Jahrhunderts“ – veneration of the Cross is historically attested from the late 14th century. Procession of the Cross on the first Sunday after 14 September; the official pilgrim stamp is available here.
• Schwanenburg, Kleve (km 29.8) – ancestral seat of the Dukes of Kleve, who made the Swan Knight legend their own; Wagner's Lohengrin is its late fruit.
• St. Nicolai, Kalkar (km 47.1) – consecrated 1450; nine of originally at least sixteen altarpieces survive, the high altar begun in 1488 by Meister Arnt, completed in 1500, wings 1506–08 by Jan Joest.
• Pilgrimage church of Marienbaum (km 56.8) – in 1430 a paralysed shepherd found an image of Mary in an oak, in 1460 Mary of Burgundy founded a Bridgettine double monastery; around 15,000 pilgrims a year.
• Cathedral of St. Viktor, Xanten (km 67.5) – foundation stone 1263, completion 1544, 281 years of construction; the town's name comes from „ad Sanctos“, at the saints.
• LVR-Archäologischer Park Xanten – 60 hectares above the Colonia Ulpia Traiana, founded around AD 100, some 10,000 inhabitants; admission 11 euros, free on the first Monday of the month (as of September 2026).
• Quirinus-Münster, Neuss (km 155.8) – built 1209–1230, the relics of Quirinus arrived in 1050 as a papal gift; Basilica minor since 6 October 2009.
• Customs fortress of Zons (km 174.5) – Archbishop Friedrich III. von Saarwerden moved the Rhine toll here in 1372 and granted the town its charter on 20 December 1373; the castle is still called Friedestrom.
• Cologne Cathedral (km 206.6) – Shrine of the Three Kings by Nikolaus von Verdun, 1190–1225; from 1398 its own showing of relics for passing pilgrims.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

Nijmegen is not a start out of nowhere but a hub. From the north you arrive on the Jacobsweg Nieumeghen, which comes from Hasselt and ends in Nijmegen at kilometre 147.6 – here you simply carry on, southwards into the German Rhine network. The Jakobsweg Nijmegen–Maastricht also starts in the same city and heads through Limburg, keeping Germany on its left.

The choice is easy to remember: to Maastricht you stay on the Dutch side, to Cologne you cross into Germany at Wyler. If you already know the border region you can join at Kranenburg – there „Weg 3“ from Millingen am Rhein meets this „Weg 4“ –, and the operator has waymarked feeder routes from Emmerich and Wesel.

Continuing the Pilgrimage?

Cologne is the biggest interchange in the German network of Ways of St. James. Southwards the Linksrheinischer Jakobsweg leads up the Rhine to Bingen, with a branch onto the Eifel-Camino at Andernach; westwards the Via Coloniensis runs through the northern Eifel to Trier (241.8 km) and on towards France; eastwards the Elisabethpfad 3 to Marburg. The Westfälischer Jakobsweg also ends at the Cathedral – anyone coming from Osnabrück shares your finish line here.

For pilgrims heading for Santiago the Via Coloniensis is the logical continuation; if you want to stay by the river, take the Linksrheinischer. Either way you set off from the Cathedral, not from a signpost on the edge of town.

Preparation & Practicalities

The route can be walked all year, at its finest in spring and autumn; in high summer the open Rhine plain offers little shade. Waymarking follows the North Rhine-Westphalia rule: yellow shell on blue, pointing towards Santiago, turns marked by additional arrows. One thing you should know: the printed LVR volumes are no longer reprinted, but the routes themselves are checked and maintained every year by local hiking clubs. Download the track in advance instead of hoping for a book.

You don't need a pilgrim passport (Credencial) here to get a bed, but you will want one: on the German section some 30 stamping points await, from Zyfflich via Kranenburg, Kleve, Xanten, Moers and Neuss to Cologne, plus separate stamps for the Emmerich feeder route and the variant via Kloster Knechtsteden. The Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft in Aachen posts it to you, guaranteed at least ten days before departure – so order it in good time.

The easiest way to put together stages, elevation profiles and suitable accommodation is directly in the Camino Ninja app, where you plan your stages and book in your lodging at the same time.

What the Route Costs

Reckon with German prices, not Spanish ones. Because there are no classic pilgrim hostels on the Lower Rhine, you sleep in guesthouses, hotels and inns: single rooms are typically 50 to 80 euros, double rooms 70 to 110 euros, in Cologne rather more. It gets cheaper with monastery guesthouses such as Knechtsteden near Dormagen or youth hostels in the cities. With food and drink you realistically reach 60 to 90 euros a day (as of September 2026).

The small items: the LVR-Archäologischer Park Xanten costs 11 euros, reduced 7 euros, free under 18 and free for everyone on the first Monday of the month. The pilgrim passport of the Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft is formally free of charge, a donation of 10 euros is requested. Churches and stamps cost nothing (all prices as of September 2026).

Getting There

To the start: Nijmegen Centraal is a hub of the Dutch NS with connections via Arnhem and Utrecht. From Germany the most comfortable way is to travel to Kleve or Emmerich and change there to the cross-border bus 58 – the old Kleve–Nijmegen railway line is closed, the bus is today's link.

From the finish: Cologne main station lies a hundred metres from the Cathedral and is one of Europe's biggest long-distance hubs. En route, too, you are never far from a track: Kleve on the RE 10 „Niers-Express“, Xanten and Moers on the RB 31 „Der Niederrheiner“, Neuss and Cologne in the S-Bahn network – which makes this route ideal for walking in sections.

• Rail start and finish: Deutsche Bahn – Köln Hbf, Neuss, Kleve; Nijmegen Centraal via NS
• Bus Kleve/Emmerich – Nijmegen: line 58 (Breng/NIAG)
• Stamping points, route information: unterwegs-nach-santiago.eu, Kranenburg parish office (Kirchplatz 1)