Rottenburg – Freiburg – Héricourt

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Rottenburg am Neckar → Héricourt (France)
• Length: 282.1 km
• Elevation: ↗ 3,246 m / ↘ 3,239 m — the biggest climbs lie between the Neckar and the Kinzig valley
• Highest area: around 670 m near Loßburg
• Duration: about 10–13 days (the pilgrim guide divides the stretch to Thann into 20 short stages)
• Waymark: yellow ray bundle on a blue field
• Character: a cross-border corridor Swabia → Burgundy: Neckar, Black Forest, Rhine plain, Alsace, Burgundian Gate

Overview

The Way of St. James Rottenburg – Freiburg – Héricourt is the classic southwest diagonal of the German network: from Rottenburg am Neckar it crosses the entire Black Forest through the Kinzig and Elz valleys, reaches Freiburg, crosses the Rhine and continues through Alsace via Thann and Belfort to Héricourt at the Burgundian Gate — the very spot where the French network of pilgrim routes begins.

Few German routes change scenery this often: the Neckar valley and a bishop's town, dark Black Forest heights and raftsmen's towns, the great minster city of Freiburg, the wide Rhine plain, Alsatian villages and finally the gentle gap between the Vosges and the Jura. Two countries, two languages — and one continuous waymark.

The route is cared for by volunteers of the Jakobsweg-Team Winnenden, who researched it, waymarked it and described it in their own pilgrim guide. It follows the historic corridors along which pilgrims from Swabia reached Burgundy and the great French main routes to Santiago.

Other Names

The pilgrim guide is titled “Der Jakobsweg von Rottenburg bis Thann”; the wider network goes by Jakobswege zur Burgundischen Pforte (Ways of St. James to the Burgundian Gate). The section between Loßburg and Wolfach is also known as the Kinzigtäler Jakobusweg. In German the route is usually called Jakobsweg Rottenburg–Héricourt.

Who This Route Is Ideal For — and Who It's Not

Ideal if you want maximum variety on a single route: two famous minsters, a Romanesque monastery, half-timbered towns, a Rhine crossing on foot and a finale in France. It also makes a great first cross-border pilgrimage — the change of culture beyond the Rhine is part of the experience.

Not your route if you want flat, easy walking: the Black Forest stages between the Neckar and the Elz valley have honest climbs, and snow lingers up there into spring. Lodging is German-French reality, too — inns, guesthouses and gîtes rather than a hostel network, with some planning needed in the small villages.

Route & Landscape

From Rottenburg the route first follows the Neckar to Horb and then climbs via Loßburg into the Black Forest. Through the upper Kinzig valley it descends to Alpirsbach and continues through the raftsmen's towns of Schenkenzell, Schiltach and Wolfach. Via the Kienbach valley the route switches to the Gutach valley and over the Büchereck into the Elz valley — through Elzach and Waldkirch and out into the Rhine plain to Freiburg.

Beyond Freiburg the land turns flat and wide: near Oberrimsingen you choose — the Rhine bridge at Hartheim–Fessenheim, or the variant via Breisach. Across the river in Alsace the route runs via Ensisheim to the edge of the Vosges at Thann, then through the quiet Sundgau via Bellemagny to Belfort and finally to Héricourt in the Burgundian Gate.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

The pilgrim guide describes the way to Thann in 20 deliberately short stages; most pilgrims combine them into days of around 20–25 kilometers. A proven division (all figures approximate):

1. Rottenburg → Horb — along the Neckar, with the Weggental pilgrimage church as an overture
2. Horb → Loßburg — the long climb into the Black Forest, up to the route's highest area
3. Loßburg → Alpirsbach — a short stage into the upper Kinzig valley, leaving time for the monastery
4. Alpirsbach → Wolfach — through the Kinzig valley via Schenkenzell and half-timbered Schiltach
5. Wolfach → Elzach — via the Kienbach valley, the Gutach valley and the Büchereck: the last Black Forest crossing
6. Elzach → Waldkirch — an easy walk down the Elz valley
7. Waldkirch → Freiburg — out of the valley and into the minster city
8. Freiburg → Hartheim/Grezhausen — across the Rhine plain toward the river
9. Hartheim → Ensisheim — over the Rhine bridge at Fessenheim into Alsace (alternative via Breisach)
10. Ensisheim → Thann — across the plain to the foot of the Vosges
11. Thann → Belfort (2 day stages) — through the Sundgau via Bellemagny, with lodging en route
12. Belfort → Héricourt — the short finale through the Burgundian Gate

The terrain is moderately demanding: the Black Forest half accumulates several thousand meters of climbing, while everything from Freiburg on is flat. The route is waymarked with the yellow ray bundle on a blue field — good to know: the orientation of the ray bundle shows the walking direction, and there are usually no extra arrows. In the Kinzig valley you will also meet the older yellow shell of the Kinzigtäler Jakobusweg — both point the same way.

A Volunteer Team and a Waymark: How the Way to Burgundy Came About

There is no agency or tourist board behind this route, but the Jakobsweg-Team Winnenden around Berthold Burkhardt and Hans-Jörg Bahmüller, who reconstructed, waymarked and documented the old pilgrim corridors from Swabia to Burgundy. Their guide “Der Jakobsweg von Rottenburg bis Thann” (2023 edition) covers the way to Thann in 20 stages — with maps, elevation profiles and lodging lists in A6 format, made for a jacket pocket.

The waymark will look familiar if you have walked the Via Beuronensis: the yellow ray bundle on a blue field, whose focal point shows the direction. In the Kinzig valley the route partly overlaps the Kinzigtäler Jakobusweg established back in 1993 with its yellow shell — so you are walking a doubly waymarked corridor there, one of the earliest revived Ways of St. James in Baden-Württemberg.

Historically the route follows the logic of the old long-distance roads: from the Neckar region through the Black Forest valleys to the Upper Rhine and through the Burgundian Gate — the low gap between the Vosges and the Jura used since antiquity, now shared by canal, railway and motorway. Walking here means using one of Europe's oldest traffic corridors in its slowest form.

Highlights Along the Way

This route is blessed with places worth a longer break — here are the most important ones, each with a little more reading for the park bench:

Rottenburg am Neckar: Roman Town, Bishop's Town, Pilgrim Town

Rottenburg makes a strong start, because the town mattered twice before the first pilgrim set out: in Roman times it was Sumelocenna, one of the largest Roman settlements in today's Baden-Württemberg — the Sumelocenna museum shows the remains. Today Rottenburg is the seat of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, with St. Martin's Cathedral on the market square and the Baroque Weggental pilgrimage church just outside town — a place of grace walked to for centuries, perfect for your first stamp. And in the Sülchen church, the bishops' burial place, archaeology reaches back to Merovingian times. A town as a time-lapse — give it an hour before you start.

Alpirsbach Monastery: Romanesque in Red Sandstone

After the long Black Forest climb, the upper Kinzig valley holds a building art historians rave about: Alpirsbach Monastery, founded as a Benedictine abbey in 1095, is one of the best-preserved Romanesque monastic complexes in Germany. Because monastic life ended with the Reformation and little was rebuilt afterwards, the red sandstone basilica still stands much as it did in the 12th century — austere, bare, mighty. That very austerity makes the space so powerful: here you physically understand what Benedictine rigor once meant. A worldly footnote: the name Alpirsbach is best known today for the Klosterbräu beer brewed opposite the monastery since the 19th century. A monastery, a beer, a stage — there are worse combinations.

The Kinzig Valley: Timber Frames, Rafts and the Yellow Shell

Between Alpirsbach and Wolfach the route belongs to the Kinzig valley, which tells its own economic history: for centuries the valley lived off timber rafting — Black Forest firs were rafted down the Kinzig toward Rhine and Neckar, and the biggest trunks ended up as “Dutch timber” in the shipyards of Amsterdam. Little towns like Schiltach with its slate-clad, half-timbered market square were built on that wealth; museums along the way keep the memory of the rough trade alive. For pilgrims the valley holds one more distinction: since 1993 it has carried the Kinzigtäler Jakobusweg, one of the earliest revived Ways of St. James in the region — its yellow shell accompanies your ray bundle as far as Wolfach.

Freiburg Minster: the Most Beautiful Tower in Christendom

You walk toward Freiburg Minster for half a day before you finally stand in front of it — then look up: the 116-meter west tower with its openwork stone spire was completed around 1330 and, ever since Jacob Burckhardt's phrase about “the most beautiful tower in Christendom,” has stood as the epitome of Gothic tower building. It is one of the few great Gothic towers actually finished in the Middle Ages — and it survived the bombing night of 1944, which destroyed the old town around it, almost unscathed. Around the minster: the daily market, the famous Bächle water runnels in the lanes (step into one and, legend says, you must marry a Freiburger) — and with the Himmelreich route, a second pilgrim way crosses yours right here.

Ensisheim: the Stone That Fell From the Sky in 1492

Just beyond the Rhine crossing lies Ensisheim, an unassuming Alsatian town with a world sensation in its town hall: on November 7, 1492, before the eyes of the townsfolk, a meteorite of around 127 kilograms crashed into a wheat field — the oldest witnessed meteorite fall in Europe whose stone survives. Young King Maximilian I had the block brought to him and read it as a divine sign for his campaign against France; Sebastian Brant spread the news across Europe in broadsheets. A large piece of the “thunderstone” sits today in the Musée de la Régence on the market square — a detour of a few minutes, and you have seen half a meter of world history, fallen from the sky in the most literal sense.

Thann: the Minster of the Theobald Pilgrims

In Thann pilgrimage history catches up with you, for the town itself was a pilgrimage destination for centuries: the Collégiale Saint-Thiébaut — the “Thann minster” — has kept a relic of Saint Theobald since the Middle Ages, drawing pilgrims from half of Europe; its flamboyant Gothic and filigree spire rival far larger cathedrals. According to the founding legend, the mule carrying the relic stopped at three fir trees and would not move on — a miracle remembered to this day in the Crémation des Trois Sapins on June 30, when three firs are burned on the square before the minster. If your stage plan allows it: this is one of the oldest town festivals in Alsace — and as a pilgrim you are not a tourist here, but the target audience of 700 years' standing.

Belfort and the Burgundian Gate: the Lion at the End of the Road

The finale belongs to Belfort: beneath the Vauban citadel keeps watch the Lion of Belfort — 22 meters long, carved from red Vosges sandstone between 1875 and 1880 by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the Alsatian who went on to build the Statue of Liberty. The lion commemorates the town's defense in 1870/71 and is the emblem of the whole region. Beyond it opens the Burgundian Gate: the low gap between the Vosges and the Jura, a passage between the Rhineland and the Rhône valley since antiquity — and a watershed. From here the water no longer flows to the North Sea but to the Mediterranean. Arriving in Héricourt, you have not just linked two countries — you have quite literally changed sides of Europe.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

The most natural feeder is the Beuron Way of St. James, whose first stage runs from Tübingen straight to Rottenburg — anyone coming from the Neckar region starts here without a detour. From the north, Rottenburg is also reached by the old pilgrim corridor from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, likewise documented by the Winnenden team.

En route the way crosses two more routes from our network: in Freiburg you meet the Himmelreich Jakobsweg (Hüfingen–Freiburg–Basel), and if you choose the Rhine variant via Breisach, you stand at the endpoint of the Badischer Jakobsweg — both good interchange points in either direction.

Continue Your Pilgrimage?

Héricourt is a junction: the long Lake Constance feeder Lindau – Héricourt ends here as well — two German routes, one gateway to France.

From here the way continues through the Franche-Comté into Burgundy, where two classic lines offer themselves: northwest via Vézelay onto the Via Lemovicensis, or southwest via Cluny to Le Puy-en-Velay onto the Via Podiensis. Both lead to the Pyrenees, where the Camino Francés takes over for the last great stretch to Santiago.

Preparation & Practical Information

The best season is May to October; snow can linger on the Black Forest heights into spring. You sleep in inns and guesthouses, and increasingly in gîtes and chambres d'hôtes on the French side — book ahead in the small Black Forest and Sundgau villages. Handy: the Kinzig and Elz valleys have rail service (Loßburg, Alpirsbach, Schiltach, Wolfach, Elzach, Waldkirch), so the route works well in sections.

A proven companion is the pilgrim guide “Der Jakobsweg von Rottenburg bis Thann” by the Jakobsweg-Team Winnenden (2023 edition) with maps, elevation profiles and lodging lists. A pilgrim credential belongs in your pack; stamps await in churches and town halls along the way.

You can cut the stages to fit your legs — easiest directly in the Camino Ninja app, where you build your stages and plan matching accommodation as you go.

What the Journey Will Cost You

On the German side budget €60–100 per day for lodging and food; on the French side gîtes and chambres d'hôtes often come cheaper, more like €45–75 per day (as of August 2026). Freiburg is the priciest overnight stop on the route — book early.

Getting There

Rottenburg lies on the Tübingen–Horb railway line, about an hour from Stuttgart. Héricourt has its own station on the TER line Belfort–Montbéliard; for the return to Germany, travel via Belfort or the Belfort–Montbéliard TGV station, or via Basel.

• Train to Rottenburg: Deutsche Bahn — connections and tickets.
• Return from Héricourt / Belfort: SNCF Connect — French connections, TGV from Belfort–Montbéliard.
• Section hikes in the Black Forest: stations at Loßburg, Alpirsbach, Schiltach, Wolfach, Elzach and Waldkirch (bahn.de).