Jakobsweg Graz

At a glance

• Start / Finish: Thal near Graz (St. James church, Kirchberg) / Malečnik near Maribor (Slovenia)
• Length: 136.0 km
• Duration: 6–7 days
• Elevation: ↗ 2,039 m / ↘ 2,196 m
• Highest point: 528 m in the hill country of southeastern Styria
• Stages: 6 (Camino Ninja system; Steiermark Tourismus divides the same route into 4 very long stages)
• Direction: west → southeast, from the St. James church in Thal through Graz and down the Mur to Slovenia
• Countries: Austria (Styria) and Slovenia
• Responsible body: no continuous trail organization; route description after Peter Lindenthal, the Styrian part also marketed as the „Grazer Jakobsweg"
• Waymarking: patchy in Styria, practically none in Slovenia — GPS track essential
• Connection west: the Jakobsweg Weststeiermark starts at the same church in Thal
• Connection south: Camino Slovenia (Maribor) along the Drava to Dravograd (in preparation), then the Jakobsweg Kärnten
• Best time: April to October, finest in May, June and September

Overview

The Jakobsweg Graz is a trail that begins in the city that gives it its name and finds nothing of St. James in it. 136.0 kilometers from the St. James church in Thal on the western edge of the city through the old town of Graz, then down the Mur, through the hill country of southeastern Styria and the Schwarzautal to Mureck, across the bridge into Slovenia, through the vineyard hills of the Slovenske gorice to Maribor and up to the pilgrimage church of Malečnik. Six days, highest point 528 meters, two UNESCO World Heritage sites in the first fifteen kilometers and a state border that was only drawn in 1919 and where nobody has stood since December 2007.

It is the Styrian section of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg, which Peter Lindenthal reconstructed from church dedications and old roads, and it is, frankly, the least developed Jakobsweg in Austria: a few scallops in Styria, none in Slovenia, no hostels, stamps only if someone happens to be in the rectory. What it offers instead are churches with dates — St. Jakob in Enzelsdorf from 1152 with a Roman stone from the year 100 in its wall, the cathedral with the Landplagenbild of 1485, the pilgrimage church above Malečnik whose founding charter of 1493 lies in the provincial archive in Graz — and at the finish the Stara trta, the oldest fruit-bearing vine in the world. An offshoot of it grows in Graz. The start and finish of this trail are botanically related.

Other names

This trail has three names, and all three are right. Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg is what it is called in the literature — that is Peter Lindenthal's name, and the whole route from Graz via Slovenia, Carinthia and East Tyrol to Innsbruck goes back to his research; Styria is its first chapter. Grazer Jakobsweg is what Steiermark Tourismus calls it, listing it as a 132-kilometer route in four stages from Thal to Maribor. And with us it is the Jakobsweg Graz, because the provincial capital is the bracket: you start at its western edge, walk right through it and then down the Mur to the border.

In Slovene the Way of St. James is the Jakobova pot — but the official Slovenian network with its branches runs further south via Ptuj and knows no Way of St. James in Maribor; what arrives there is the Marijina romarska pot, the Marian pilgrimage route. And do not confuse it: the Jakobsweg Weststeiermark starts at the same St. James church in Thal — and then heads the other way, over the Koralpe to Carinthia.

Ideal for — and not so much for

This trail is ideal if you have a week, like navigating on your own and fancy a route that takes you in six days from a UNESCO World Heritage site across a state border into wine country. You walk through the old town of Graz and through villages where you are the only pilgrim of the month; you get city, riverside woodland, hill country, vineyards and city again over 136 kilometers, plus Buschenschank taverns with a Brettljause platter and a quarter liter of wine for under €20. If you are arriving after the long chain from the west, you find the relaxed finale here; if you want to walk the chain toward Innsbruck, you find the beginning.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you expect a waymarked motorway. Signage is patchy in Styria and practically nonexistent in Slovenia — without a GPS track or guidebook you will regularly stand at junctions guessing. There are no pilgrim hostels, you only get stamps if someone happens to be in the rectory, and pilgrim company practically never. And the share of asphalt is high: between Graz and Fernitz you walk largely on cycle and riverside paths along the Mur, and many links between the hamlets of the hill country are paved. If you are after the Camino Francés experience — hostel beds, pilgrim menu, seeing the same faces every evening — you will not find it here.

Route & landscape

The trail begins at the Thalersee west of Graz and turns straight east into the city: past Schloss Eggenberg, part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2010, across the Mur into the old town, protected since 1999, along the cathedral and the foot of the Schlossberg and then out through Jakomini to the south. From there the Mur is your guide. Via Thondorf, Gössendorf and Fernitz the trail runs through the flat Mur valley but soon leaves it eastward into the hill country of southeastern Styria: Kulmberg, Siebing, Frannach, Glatzau — hamlets with church towers on hilltops, between them orchards, maize and forest. You never get higher than 528 meters, nor lower than 231.

In the Schwarzautal it softens, then it heads via St. Nikolai ob Draßling back to the river. At Mureck you cross the Mur — and with it the state border. On the Slovenian side the trail climbs into the Slovenske gorice, a vineyard hill country of countless small ridges and gullies: Zgornja Velka, Vranji Vrh, Jareninski Dol, Gačnik. This is where the elevation adds up, never steep but relentless. Via Pernica you reach Maribor, walk through Lent on the Drava and climb one last time to Malečnik, where the pilgrimage church na Gorci stands above the valley.

Stages, terrain & difficulty

We divide the 136.0 kilometers into six stages between 18.5 and 27.0 kilometers — a Camino Ninja system, calibrated to the exact length of our route. Steiermark Tourismus proposes only four stages for the same route, one of them 43.2 kilometers; that is meant to be sporting, but it is no fun. Technically nothing about this trail is difficult: no passage above 528 meters, no exposed terrain, good paths. It is demanding in other ways — through the constant up and down of the Slovenske gorice, through the high share of asphalt and because you have to find every junction yourself.

1. Thal (St. James church) – Eggenberg – Graz-Jakomini (18.5 km) — Thalersee, Schloss Eggenberg, Mariahilf, Hauptplatz, cathedral; the city day.
2. Graz-Jakomini – Gössendorf – Fernitz – Siebing (24.0 km) — Mur riverbank, St. Jakob in Enzelsdorf, then up into the hills.
3. Siebing – Frannach – Glatzau – Wolfsberg im Schwarzautal (22.5 km) — hamlets on hilltops, orchards, Schwarzautal.
4. Wolfsberg im Schwarzautal – St. Nikolai ob Draßling – Mureck (27.0 km) — the longest stage, Roman stone in the church wall, back to the Mur.
5. Mureck – Zgornja Velka – Jareninski Dol (24.0 km) — Mur bridge, border crossing, into the Slovenske gorice.
6. Jareninski Dol – Pernica – Maribor – Malečnik (20.0 km) — vineyard hills, Lent on the Drava, Stara trta, final climb to the pilgrimage church.

Difficulty: technically low, physically easy to moderate, navigationally demanding. Styria marks with the odd scallop, yellow dots and dashes — nothing continuous —, Slovenia practically not at all. There are railway stations only at the ends: Graz and Maribor are on the Südbahn, in between you depend on buses. If you want to shorten it, Mureck is the best place, with a bus to Spielfeld-Straß and thus to the railway.

Two churches, one vine and a charter in the wrong city

Graz cathedral is dedicated to St. Giles. St. James does not appear among its saints, nor on its seven bells, and the research found no medieval St. James church or Graz confraternity of St. James anywhere — nor a Santiago pilgrim from the city known by name. The Jakobsweg Graz is therefore not a documented medieval pilgrim route but a reconstruction along old church sites, and its St. James substance lies not in the provincial capital but on its edges. In the west that is Thal: first mentioned as a parish in 1322, since 1994 the rainbow-colored church of Ernst Fuchs, in which the scallop shell recurs in several forms. In the south it is St. Jakob in Enzelsdorf near Fernitz: first recorded in 1152, making it one of the oldest church buildings in Styria, with a Roman inscription stone from the year 100 in its wall and St. James on the high altar painting. Two churches, 20 kilometers apart, and between them a city that built the apostle no altar. Instead it painted something else on the cathedral wall: the Landplagenbild of 1485 shows Turks, plague and locusts above the oldest surviving view of Graz, and the inscription lets God himself speak: „Darumb das du mich hast ungeert. So stirbt aus die ain teil des swert. Der andere der pestilenz stirbt, der drit tail des hungers verdirbt." — Because you have dishonored me, one part of you dies by the sword, the second of pestilence, the third perishes of hunger.

That this trail nevertheless has a bracket, you only notice at the finish. The pilgrimage church na Gorci above Malečnik bears the year 1517 on a buttress; its first documentary mention is a parchment dated July 12, 1493 — and that lies today in the Styrian Provincial Archive in Graz. The trail ends at a church whose founding charter is kept in its starting city. On June 2, 2023, Pope Francis spiritually linked this sanctuary with Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In the middle of the trail, in Wolfsberg im Schwarzautal, an organ with 20 stops from the diocesan organ workshop of Maribor has stood since 2012 — the destination supplied the Styrian stage church with its instrument. And in Lent on the Drava grows the Stara trta, over 400 years old, of the Žametovka variety, according to the Guinness Book the oldest fruit-bearing vine in the world; offshoots of it stand in Ptuj, in Grad and in Graz. St. James did not connect these two cities. A parchment, an organ and a vine did.

Highlights along the way

• St. James church, Thal — first recorded in 1322, remodeled into a total work of art by Ernst Fuchs from 1992 to 1994: rainbow roof truss, crystal glass altar, scallop shells everywhere; the starting point of two Styrian Camino routes.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, Thal — in his birthplace on the Thalersee, a few minutes' walk from the St. James church.
• Schloss Eggenberg — UNESCO World Heritage since 2010, a calendar in stone with 365 exterior windows and 24 state rooms.
• Old town of Graz — UNESCO World Heritage since 1999; in the cathedral the Landplagenbild of 1485 with the oldest surviving view of the city.
• Mariahilferkirche, Graz — 1607 to 1611 to plans by Giovanni Pietro de Pomis, who painted and signed the miraculous image himself in 1611.
• St. Jakob in Enzelsdorf (Fernitz-Mellach) — recorded in 1152, one of the oldest church buildings in Styria, Roman stone from the year 100 in the wall.
• Parish church of Wolfsberg im Schwarzautal — mentioned in 1269, remodeled in Baroque style by Johann Georg Stengg; organ of 2012 from the diocesan organ workshop of Maribor.
• St. Nikolai ob Draßling — mentioned in 1419, Romanesque remains; in the south wall a Roman stone with a head of Mithras between two lions.
• Mureck ship mill — built in 1997 to original specifications, the only floating, working mill in Central Europe of traditional construction.
• Border crossing on the Mur — a border drawn in 1919, Yugoslav until 1991 and without controls since December 21, 2007.
• Spodnji Jakobski Dol — the „Lower St. James Valley" north of Pernica with a Gothic St. James church from the 14th century, remodeled in 1635; the only St. James church of the Slovenian part, a short detour.
• Maribor, Lent and Stara trta — the old town on the Drava, European Capital of Culture 2012, and the oldest fruit-bearing vine in the world.
• Pilgrimage church na Gorci, Malečnik — parchment of 1493, built 1517, linked with Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome since June 2, 2023.

How pilgrims reach this trail

The usual way here is the train to Graz Hauptbahnhof and from there the bus to Thal: line 40 or 65 to Gösting, change there to line 48 toward Thal-Kirchberg, about half an hour in all, and you are standing in front of the St. James church. If you like, you can also walk the eight kilometers or so out from the main station — but then you walk the first day twice, because the trail leads from Thal back into the city.

For pilgrims already on the road, Thal is a junction. The Jakobsweg Weststeiermark starts at exactly the same church and heads west over the Koralpe to Lavamünd — the two trails share the starting point and part after a hundred meters. From Upper Styria, the two-day link trail of the Verein zur Förderung der steirischen Jakobswege also leads from Seckau to Geistthal — from there you reach Thal via the first stages of the Weststeiermark trail in reverse. And conversely, this trail can be thought of as a beginning: it is the first chapter of the Südösterreichischer Jakobsweg, and if you want to walk the whole arc to Innsbruck, you start at the church in Thal.

Carrying on?

In Malečnik it is over — but only for this section. From Maribor, the section we list as Camino Slovenia (Maribor) leads up the Drava via Ruše and Lovrenc na Pohorju toward Dravograd; it is still in preparation and not yet fully described. In Dravograd the Jakobsweg Kärnten takes over and follows the Drava 260 kilometers to Lienz, then it continues west on the Jakobsweg Osttirol and the Jakobsweg Südtirol or the Jakobsweg Brenner — until the Südösterreichischer flows into the Jakobsweg Österreich in Innsbruck and that in turn into the European network to Santiago.

Frankly: the Slovenian section from Maribor is the least developed part of the whole chain. The official Slovenian Camino network has no branch in Maribor — only the Marijina romarska pot, the Marian pilgrimage route, ends here. If you carry on, you plan for yourself; if you do not want the loop, take the Jakobsweg Weststeiermark from Thal, which meets the same Carinthian trail at Lavamünd.

Preparation & practicalities

The season runs from April to October. In high summer the hill country of southeastern Styria gets hot and short of shade — May, June and September are the better months, and in September the grape harvest is added. Winter walks are possible, but then many Buschenschank taverns are closed, and in the sparsely populated sections between Frannach and St. Nikolai ob Draßling lodging gets tight.

First things first: take a GPS track. Waymarking in Styria is patchy — a few scallops, yellow dots, dashes with arrows, but nothing continuous — and in the Slovenian part practically nonexistent. Without a track or guidebook you lose time every day. You sleep in inns, private rooms, guesthouses and — the regional specialty — in Buschenschank wine taverns with guest rooms; there are no pilgrim hostels in the Spanish sense in either Styria or Slovenia, and in the hill country booking ahead is a must, not a recommendation. The easiest way is to plan it directly in the Camino Ninja app, where you put together your stages and book matching lodging at the same time.

You do not need a pilgrim passport (credencial) on this trail to get in anywhere — there are simply no hostels that require one. But if you plan to walk the chain on to Santiago, get one beforehand anyway: you get stamps in rectories and municipal offices if you come by during office hours — a matter of luck, but every stamp from this region is worth a story later. Passport or ID card belong in your pack: the border crossing at Mureck has been control-free since December 21, 2007, but in 2015 and from 2020 there were temporary controls again.

What this trail costs

Budget €60 to €90 a day — this trail is considerably more expensive than a Spanish Camino because the hostel network is missing. A double room with breakfast in an inn or Buschenschank is €60 to €100, a single room €45 to €70; in Graz and Maribor you pay city prices from about €60 upward (as of September 2026). The food, on the other hand, is an argument: in the Styrian Buschenschank taverns you get a Brettljause platter and a quarter liter of wine for under €20, and the wine costs far less where it grows than in the city. In Slovenia prices are slightly below the Austrian ones, and both sides use the euro.

The fixed costs are small: the return trip from Maribor to Graz costs about €5 to €19 depending on operator and advance booking (as of September 2026), the churches cost nothing, and the Stara trta you look at from outside. Two ways to save: private rooms instead of hotels, and only one night each in Graz and Maribor.

Getting there

To the start (Thal): Graz Hauptbahnhof is easy to reach from everywhere — Railjet from Vienna in about 2:35 hours, from Salzburg and Munich via Selzthal, since December 2025 from Klagenfurt in 41 minutes via the Koralmbahn, plus Graz airport with an S-Bahn link into the city. From the main station take bus 40 or 65 to Gösting and continue on bus 48 to Thal-Kirchberg at the St. James church.

From the finish (Malečnik): Malečnik lies within the city of Maribor; a city bus takes you to the station. From there direct trains run via Spielfeld-Straß to Graz Hauptbahnhof — about 1:45 to 2:00 hours, on the old Südbahn line of 1838.

• Rail Austria: oebb.at — Vienna/Salzburg/Klagenfurt – Graz Hbf; Maribor – Spielfeld-Straß – Graz
• Rail Slovenia: potniski.sz.si — Slovenske železnice, Maribor – Graz
• Bus Styria: verbundlinie.at — Graz Hbf – Gösting – Thal-Kirchberg (lines 40 or 65 and 48); Mureck – Spielfeld-Straß
• Stations on the trail: only Graz and Maribor — buses in between