Breisach – Schauenberg

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Breisach am Rhein, Stephansmünster (Germany) / pilgrimage chapel Notre-Dame du Schauenberg above Pfaffenheim and Gueberschwihr (Alsace)
• Length: 33.6 km
• Duration: 2 stages of 16.8 km (Camino Ninja division) — or one long day
• Elevation: ↗ 235 m / ↘ 36 m — 29 kilometres level, the climb is in the last four
• Highest point: 393 m at the Schauenberg (km 33.3); lowest point 188 m in the Rhine plain (km 13.9)
• Stages: 2 — Camino Ninja system; the operators do not split the feeder into day stages
• Landscape: Rhine floodplain, Vauban fortress town, Hardt and Ried plain, Alsatian vineyards, Vosges foothill forest
• Operators: Badische St. Jakobusgesellschaft e.V. (Breisach-Oberrimsingen) and Association des Amis de Saint-Jacques en Alsace (1998); waymarking in Alsace by the Club Vosgien
• Waymarking: yellow scallop rays on blue; in Alsace the Compostela logo on Club Vosgien signs — destination boards only occasionally
• St James traces: none on the route itself; in Rouffach, 4 km from the finish, a St James chaplain in 1442 and the pilgrim Tiebelt Ber in 1481
• Accommodation: no pilgrim hostel; hotels and chambres d'hôtes in Breisach, Colmar, Hattstatt, Gueberschwihr, Pfaffenheim, Rouffach
• Connecting routes: Voie d'Alsace at the Schauenberg; the Badischer Jakobsweg ends in Breisach; Rottenburg – Freiburg – Héricourt via Freiburg
• Connection to Santiago: yes — via the Voie d'Alsace to Héricourt and the main French routes
• Best time: March to November; in high summer start early, the plain has no shade

Overview

This route carries no saint's name and no landscape name, but the names of its two ends — and both ends are borders. At the start, the Rhine: until 5 February 1945 a train ran from here to Colmar, then the bridge was blown up and the line never reopened; today you cross the road bridge of 1962, since 2025 the Julius-Leber-Brücke, and after 6.3 kilometres you stand in Neuf-Brisach — the town Louis XIV had built in 1699 as a replacement because the Peace of Rijswijk had forced him to give up Breisach. A treaty turned one town into two; you walk between them in an hour and a half. Then the plain: Wolfgantzen, Sundhoffen, Herrlisheim, fields to the horizon, lowest point 188 metres. And at the end, the mountain: from Hattstatt the vines, in Gueberschwihr the pink 12th-century bell tower of Saint-Pantaléon, then four kilometres of forest up to the chapel of Notre-Dame du Schauenberg at 393 metres, where the whole Alsatian plain lies below you and the Voie d'Alsace passes by.

To be honest, this is a feeder, not a long-distance route: 33.6 kilometres, 29 of them flat, no hostel, no St James church on the way. But the mountain it ends on has known what pilgrims are since 1441. The chaplaincy charter of 1483 justifies the endowment of a resident priest not with a miracle but with traffic: „Als von ettwas vergangnen ziten bitzhar von vil cristglöubigen menschen, zu löuffe und andacht in und zu unser lieben frowen magt Marien capellen genant in dem Schowenberg…" — for some time now so many have been coming that a priest is needed. The Schauenberg was not declared a place of pilgrimage; it became one, and the administration followed. That is exactly where this route takes you.

Other Names

In French the section belongs to the Chemin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle en Alsace; German-language pilgrim literature calls it the Zubringerweg von Breisach, the feeder from Breisach — the authoritative guide by Ursula and Heribert Kopp and Hans-Jörg Bahmüller carries it in its title: „Der Jakobsweg im Elsass. Speyer – Wissembourg – Thann, mit den Zubringerwegen von Kehl und Breisach".

Two names you should keep apart, because they sound almost identical and lie 6.3 kilometres apart: Breisach am Rhein, the German town on the cathedral rock of the right bank, first mentioned in an edict of Emperor Valentinian I of 30 August 369, and Neuf-Brisach, in German Neubreisach, Vauban's octagonal fortress town on the left bank, foundation stone 18 October 1699, UNESCO World Heritage since 2008. The route starts in one and is in the other after 6.3 kilometres. And the mountain at the finish was already called „Schowenberg" around 1334, long before anyone built a chapel there.

Who It Suits – and Who It Doesn't

Ideal if you need a transition and don't want a detour: this route has exactly one job — to take you from the end of the Badischer Jakobsweg or from Breisach station onto the Alsatian route — and does it in 33.6 kilometres. Ideal if you like crossing borders on foot: the Rhine crossing right at the start is the moment you will remember from this route, and Neuf-Brisach is the finest piece of fortress geometry any Camino has to offer. Ideal for anyone looking for a short, plannable pilgrim walk with a real destination: at the end stands not a bus stop but a chapel to which the villages of the plain have walked in procession since the 17th century.

To be honest, though, it is not for you if you are after ascent and views: 29 of the 33.6 kilometres are flat, and a hiker who recorded the route puts it like this: „Trotz keinerlei Steigungen auf dieser Etappe ist sie doch leicht anspruchsvoll, da es lange geradeaus geht." (despite no climbs at all, the stage is still mildly demanding because it goes straight ahead for so long). Not for you if you need hostels — there are none, and no overnight stay is documented at the finish: coffee, food, terrace yes, bed no. Not for you if you are looking for St James along the way: the churches are called Sainte-Colombe and Saint-Pantaléon, the St James traces lie in Rouffach, four kilometres from the finish. Gaps like these you plan away beforehand, not on the road.

Route & Landscape

You start in Breisach am Rhein beneath the Stephansmünster — construction began around 1185, inside Martin Schongauer's „Last Judgement" on 145 square metres and the high altar of Master HL from 1523–1526 — and the first thing you do is cross the Rhine: the Julius-Leber-Brücke, 282.8 metres of steel, opened to traffic on 1 December 1962. Beyond it Volgelsheim with its Rhine port, then after 6.3 kilometres Neuf-Brisach: eight bastions, demi-lunes, three surviving gates, an octagon Louis XIV chose from three of Vauban's designs; the works were finished in 1702. Then it opens out: via Wolfgantzen and Sundhoffen you cross the Hardt and Ried country west of the Rhine, fields, patches of woodland, drainage ditches, the lowest point at 188 metres in the middle of the plain.

From Herrlisheim-près-Colmar the Vosges draw closer, in Hattstatt (206 m) the vines begin — the Église Sainte-Colombe has 11th-century arcades —, in Gueberschwihr (268 m) stands the Romanesque bell tower of Saint-Pantaléon in pink sandstone, second quarter of the 12th century, and down in the village the Couvent Saint-Marc, whose sisters look after the chapel on the mountain. Then, in the last four kilometres, the route makes up all its ascent at once: through the vineyards, into the forest, past the Romanesque Chapelle Saint-Léonard, a thousand-year-old sweet chestnut with a trunk circumference of 5.45 metres and the Devil's Stone, up to 393 metres, where Notre-Dame du Schauenberg sits on a narrow rock ledge. Surface: asphalt and farm track in the plain, vineyard tracks, finally forest path. Water in every village, shade in the plain hardly any.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

We divide the route into 2 stages of 16.8 kilometres — Camino Ninja system, because the operators treat the feeder as a link, not a long-distance route, and publish no day stages. The split works out exactly: Sundhoffen lies at kilometre 16.8, precisely halfway. The kilometres are calculated from our waypoint chain and add up to the 33.6 kilometres of our route data. Difficulty: low — 235 metres of ascent, about 190 of them in the last four kilometres; the plain tests your patience, not your legs.

1. Breisach am Rhein – Sundhoffen (16.8 km) — Stephansmünster, Julius-Leber-Brücke, Volgelsheim, Neuf-Brisach, Wolfgantzen; level, farm track and road.
2. Sundhoffen – Schauenberg (16.8 km) — Herrlisheim-près-Colmar, Hattstatt, Gueberschwihr; flat to Hattstatt, then about 190 metres of ascent through vines and forest to the chapel at 393 m.

Fast walkers do the 33.6 kilometres in a day: leave Breisach at eight, reach the chapel in the early evening — but the final climb after thirty flat kilometres is harder than the profile suggests. If you want to take in the wine villages, add a short third stage: Breisach–Sundhoffen 16.8, Sundhoffen–Hattstatt 12.6, Hattstatt–Schauenberg 4.2. Sure footing is needed only in the forest section at the end; in the plain the farm tracks all look alike and signposts are rare — the GPS track belongs in your pack.

The Loan, the Pass and the Mountain That Became a Pilgrimage Site by Itself

Four kilometres from the finish lies Rouffach, and in its town archive the historian Gérard Michel looked up what remains of the Santiago pilgrims of this region. The alms books record countless passers-through, almost never with a destination. Two names remain. In 1481 the burgher Tiebelt Ber takes out a loan of five livres Stebler from the parish church to travel „zu dem lieben appostel Sant Jacob", to the dear apostle St James, and settles beforehand the case „da sach wer das er uff der selben fart von tods wegen abgieng und nit wider herheim keme" — should he die on the journey and not come home. In 1619 Hans Jacob Seilberger from Hesse applies to the Rouffach magistrate for a certificate „nach St. Jacob zu ziehen", to go to St James, and receives it with a condition: „doch das er aus dieser wolfarth nit etwas böses erlerne und ein gemeiner Landtbetler werde" — provided he learns nothing bad on this pilgrimage and does not become a common vagrant. One needed a loan, the other a pass with a good-conduct clause. Pilgrimage here was not a pious picture but a financial and public-order event — and as early as 1442 the town's tax register lists a „Cappelanus sancti Jacobi infra muros", a St James chaplain within the walls. To be honest: all of that is Rouffach, not the route. On the 33.6 kilometres themselves there is no St James church and no scallop find, and no charter says that Compostela pilgrims walked precisely this line. Hans von Waltheym came through Breisach in 1474 — but his destination was Provence.

What the route has instead is a destination that was not declared but grew. Around 1334 the mountain is called „Schowenberg", a field name. In 1441 the Marian chapel appears in the register of the Diocese of Basel, in 1471 a warden named Jöselin Hebsame is attested, and in 1483 the community of Pfaffenheim endows a chaplaincy — on the grounds that the altar „bitzhar eins eignen priesters gemanglet", had until now lacked a priest of its own, with so many people coming. The legends came later: the hermit Ulrich around 1400 and the radiant light above the height; Landgravine Anne of Saxony, healed in 1446, though this is told only in Franciscan texts of the late 18th century and written down by Abbé Litzler in 1870; the Devil's Stone that the Evil One hurled at the chapel in 1515 and which turned soft. In 1590 the bishop had an inquiry made into where „das recht und alt Maria bildt", the true old image of Mary, had gone; in 1695 the new building was consecrated, in 1704 the Recollects came from Rouffach, in 1712 there was an indulgence of a hundred days. In 1793 the Revolution sold the chapel as national property; on 3 September 1811 the miraculous image returned, and on the same day Anna-Maria Schlitzweck fell from the rock and was unhurt — on record. In 1823 Elisabeth Muller from Pfaffenheim left her crutches behind. In 1992 the Madonna was stolen; since 2000 the chapel has been a Monument historique.

And this is the point for you as a pilgrim: the last kilometres of this Camino are a stretch the villages of the plain walk anyway. Rouffach went up in 1709 because of endless rain, Westhalten against an epidemic, Gueberschwihr along the Way of the Cross since the 17th century, Pfaffenheim around 1930 nine times a year — and Hattstatt, your waypoint at kilometre 29.4, stands in the same procession list. You come with the scallop, they come with the cross, the path is the same. At the start stands a town a peace treaty doubled in 1697 and a bridge no train has crossed since 1945; at the end a mountain nobody appointed a pilgrimage site. In between, 33.6 kilometres you walk on foot, because for eighty years there has been no other way across this Rhine.

Highlights Along the Way

• Breisach am Rhein, Stephansmünster — begun around 1185, completed around 1230; Schongauer's „Last Judgement" on 145 m², high altar by Master HL (1523–1526), silver shrine of the town patrons Gervasius and Protasius from 1496 for 1,500 guilders; town first mentioned 369, Free Imperial City 1273, „Europastadt" after the 1950 referendum with 96 percent.
• Julius-Leber-Brücke — road bridge of 1962, 282.8 m, named after the resistance fighter since 2025; the railway bridge of 1878 was blown up on 4/5 February 1945 and never replaced.
• Neuf-Brisach — Vauban's ideal octagonal fortress, foundation stone 18 October 1699, works finished 1702, three gates preserved; UNESCO World Heritage since 2008 — built to replace the Breisach lost in 1697.
• Sundhoffen — kilometre 16.8, the exact midpoint of the route; bus to Colmar.
• Hattstatt, Église Sainte-Colombe — 11th-century arcades, 15th-century font, high altar from Unterlinden convent; Monument historique since 1984; procession village for the Schauenberg.
• Gueberschwihr, Saint-Pantaléon — Romanesque pink-sandstone bell tower, second quarter of the 12th century, protected since 1841; Couvent Saint-Marc, start of the Voie d'Alsace stage to Guebwiller.
• Ascent to the Schauenberg — Chapelle Saint-Léonard (12th c.), thousand-year-old sweet chestnut with a 5.45 m circumference, torn by a whirlwind in 2008 and still green; the Devil's Stone with its scratch marks.
• Notre-Dame du Schauenberg — pilgrimage chapel at 393 m, field name 1334, chapel 1441, chaplaincy 1483, new building consecrated 11 July 1695, Recollects 1704, reopened 3 September 1811, Monument historique 2000; open 10 am–8 pm, free entry, terrace overlooking the plain.
• Rouffach — 4 km from the finish: St James chaplain 1442, the pilgrims Tiebelt Ber 1481 and Hans Jacob Seilberger 1619 in the town archive; railway station.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

Almost everyone comes from the north or east. In Breisach the Badischer Jakobsweg ends, running about 320 kilometres and 17 stages down the Rhine plain from Laudenbach on the Hessian border via Heidelberg, Baden-Baden and Offenburg — yellow scallop on blue right up to the cathedral. From the Neckar region the Jakobsweg Rottenburg – Freiburg – Héricourt comes to Freiburg; on our map it crosses the Rhine further south at Fessenheim, but from Freiburg a documented 30.4-kilometre section leads over the Tuniberg and Oberrimsingen — pilgrim stamp at the Christophorus-Jugendwerk, where the Badische St. Jakobusgesellschaft is also based — to Breisach. If you want to cross the Rhine further north, take the Kinzigtäler Jakobusweg to Kehl and Strasbourg.

Without a long-distance route it is just as easy: line S1 of the Breisgau-S-Bahn runs every half hour from Freiburg Hauptbahnhof to Breisach, just under half an hour. After that no train goes on — the line across the Rhine to Colmar ended in 1945. That is exactly why this route starts where it starts: on the bank, on foot.

Continuing the Pilgrimage?

Yes — the Schauenberg is destination and junction in one. At the top you meet the Voie d'Alsace, the Chemin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle en Alsace, inaugurated on 25 July 2003, St James's Day; on our map it runs from Bad Bergzabern via Wissembourg, Strasbourg and Kaysersberg to Héricourt. The stage that passes here is called Couvent Saint-Marc – Guebwiller, 16.9 kilometres, and starts in the convent down in Gueberschwihr — the same convent whose sisters look after the chapel. It leads via Soultzmatt and the Chapelle Sainte-Marie du Val de Pâtre to Guebwiller, whose Église Saint-Léger (1200–1230) is among the largest late Romanesque buildings in Alsace, then on via Thann to Belfort and Héricourt.

From Héricourt the way heads west through the Burgundian Gate to Beaune and Burgundy, and from there onto one of the main French routes — the Via Lemovicensis via Vézelay or the Via Podiensis from Le Puy — and finally onto the Camino Francés to Santiago. If you only have a day, walk down from the Schauenberg to Pfaffenheim or Rouffach for the train, knowing that the next 275 kilometres to Héricourt are waymarked.

Preparation & Practicalities

Best time: March to November. In high summer the plain is shadeless and hot — climbing to the Schauenberg on a July afternoon is not a good idea, an early start pays off. In winter the route is walkable, but restaurants in the wine villages open irregularly. Waymarking and navigation: on the German side the yellow scallop rays on blue, in Alsace the Compostela logo on Club Vosgien signs, at some junctions with the remaining distance to Santiago. To be honest: signposts with destinations are only occasional, and in the plain the farm tracks all look alike — take the GPS track; the easiest way is to plan it directly in the Camino Ninja app together with stages and accommodation. Credencial: free from the Association des Amis de Saint-Jacques en Alsace; stamps in Breisach at the Christophorus-Jugendwerk Oberrimsingen, and ask at the chapel. Border: Schengen, an ID card is enough — carry it anyway. Language: German and French, in Alsace often both.

Accommodation: No pilgrim hostel on the 33.6 kilometres. Hotels in Breisach; chambres d'hôtes and hotels in Hattstatt, Gueberschwihr, Pfaffenheim and Rouffach; Colmar by bus from Sundhoffen. At the finish itself no overnight stay is documented — the chapel serves guests and groups from 10 am to 8 pm; if you want to sleep there, ask in advance (phone 03 89 49 35 33). Food: shops and bakeries in Breisach, Neuf-Brisach, Sundhoffen and the wine villages; winstubs in Hattstatt and Gueberschwihr; terrace at the chapel. Packing list: light shoes for asphalt and farm track, sun protection and a hat for the plain, two litres of water, rain gear, offline map; poles only for the finish.

What the Route Costs You

To be honest, the route itself costs nothing: free entry to the chapel, free credencial. All amounts as of September 2026, euros on both sides. Documented: Schauenberg 0 €, credencial 0 €; for comparison, further south on the Voie d'Alsace the Benedictine sisters of Bellemagny charge 30 € for dinner, bed and breakfast and the Ferrette reception 20 € — church houses like these do not exist on our 33.6 kilometres. Guide values: chambre d'hôtes in a wine village 65–95 €, double room 80–130 €, simple hotel in Breisach 80–120 €, menu in a winstub 20–35 €, lunch menu 15–22 €. Rail: Freiburg–Breisach at the RVF fare, Colmar–Rouffach by TER — check prices on bahn.de and ter.sncf.com.

Realistic daily budget: frugal with self-catering and a simple room 60–90 €, mid-range with chambre d'hôtes and winstub 100–150 €. The route is cheapest in a single day: S-Bahn there, TER back, a meal on the chapel terrace — then it stays at tickets and food.

Getting There

To the start (Breisach): Breisach station at the end of the Breisach line; line S1 of the Breisgau-S-Bahn every half hour from Freiburg (Breisgau) Hbf, about 25–30 minutes, electrified since 2019. Freiburg is on the Rhine Valley line with ICE stops. From Breisach station it is a few minutes to the cathedral and the Rhine. From Alsace: bus 826 / R026 Colmar – Neuf-Brisach – Breisach in the RVF network.

En route and from the finish (Schauenberg): bus from Sundhoffen and Neuf-Brisach to Colmar. There is no station at the Schauenberg — on foot down to Pfaffenheim about an hour, to Rouffach about an hour and a half; from both the TER runs on the Colmar – Rouffach – Mulhouse line. Back to Germany via Colmar and bus 826 to Breisach, then the S1 to Freiburg; Freiburg – Colmar takes about 1.5–2 hours this way. Car: forest road to 300 m below the chapel, car park.

• Rail Germany: bahn.de — Freiburg (Breisgau) Hbf – Breisach, line S1
• Rail France: ter.sncf.com — TER Colmar – Rouffach – Mulhouse
• Bus across the Rhine: rvf.de — line 826 / R026 Breisach – Neuf-Brisach – Colmar
• Operator Alsace: saint-jacques-alsace.org — Association des Amis de Saint-Jacques en Alsace, credencial
• Operator Baden: badische-jakobusgesellschaft.de — Badische St. Jakobusgesellschaft e.V., Breisach-Oberrimsingen