Jakobsweg Hornbach – Metz

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Hornbach Abbey (South-West Palatinate) / Saint-Étienne Cathedral, Metz (Lorraine)
• Length: 142.8 km
• Duration: 8 days
• Elevation: ↗ 2,002 m / ↘ 2,060 m
• Highest point: 400 m in the Bliesgau; lowest point 170 m on the Moselle in Metz
• Stages: 8 — the first three are the published stages of Saarpfalz-Touristik, the remaining five are Camino Ninja's division
• Countries: Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland) and France (Moselle)
• Operator: St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland e.V. (founded 25 July 2005), in Lorraine Les amis de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle Région Lorraine (2001)
• Waymarking: white scallop shell on a blue background and Sternenweg shell stones; from the border GR 5G (red and white)
• St James churches: none — the only trace is the Place Saint-Jacques in Metz
• No hostel network: hotels, inns, holiday flats, chambres d'hôtes; regional pilgrim passport (2 €) and credencial from the Jakobusgesellschaft
• Feeder routes: the Pfälzer Nordroute and the Pfälzer Südroute both end in Hornbach
• Onward from Metz: Trier – Le Puy towards the Via Podiensis
• Best time: April to October; orchids bloom in the Bliesgau in May/June

Overview

This way begins at a tomb in which nobody lies. In 742 the itinerant bishop Pirmin founded the abbey of Hornbach in the Bliesgau; on 3 November 753 he died there — and when his tomb in the apse was uncovered in 1953, it was empty, because his bones had been taken to Speyer in 1558. Speyer is precisely where the two Palatinate Ways of St James that end here come from. Whoever walks on heads for Metz: the episcopal city that once confirmed the abbey's foundation. In between lie the UNESCO Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve with its orchard meadows and 25 of Germany's 50 orchid species, the Church of St Stephen in Böckweiler with its trefoil choir, the miraculous image "Unsere Liebe Frau mit den Pfeilen" (Our Lady with the Arrows) in the Williamite monastery of Gräfinthal and, in Rilchingen-Hanweiler, the border.

Then language and waymarking change. In Sarreguemines, where the Blies flows into the Saar, the coal and ceramics country of Lorraine begins; on the Hérapel near Cocheren lay a Roman hilltop settlement that ended abruptly in 407, and in Saint-Avold stands an abbey whose town name is a worn-down "Sankt Nabor". Past the imperial château of Courcelles-Chaussy and through the valley of the Nied you reach Metz and the cathedral with the largest expanse of glass in France. To be honest, this is a Way of St James without St James: in 142.8 kilometres there is not a single church dedicated to him, no hostel network, and things get thin between Saint-Avold and Courcelles-Chaussy. In return you get two countries, eight stages of gentle upland walking and a history told by 8th-century bishops rather than pilgrim legends.

Other Names

This way has more names than signposts. The St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland lists it as the route "Hornbach (Pfalz) bis Metz" and divides it into three blocks: the Nordweg via Saarbrücken, the Südweg via Saargemünd — that is our route — and the "Weg durch Lothringen vom Herapel bis Metz". Saarpfalz-Touristik speaks of the Saarland-Jakobsweg with a northern and a southern route; on the French side the way runs from the border on the long-distance trail GR 5G, and the Lorraine friends of St James refer to the corridor through Metz as the Chemin Lorrain. Over all of it, since 2006, sits the umbrella of the Sternenweg / Chemin des étoiles project of the Regionalverband Saarbrücken.

"Jakobsweg Hornbach – Metz" is our bundling. We combine the Südweg and the Lorraine section into one continuous way, because that is exactly how it is walked — no association markets it under this title as a single brand. If you ask along the way, say "Jakobsweg Südroute" in Saarland and "GR 5G" or "Chemin de Saint-Jacques" in France. And it is no coincidence that the pilgrim guide to the Klosterroute is called "Von Worms bis Metz": the connection you walk here has long been conceived as a long-distance route.

Who It's Ideal For – and Who It's Not

Ideal if you have a week and want a way that packs two countries, two languages and two cultures of remembrance into eight stages. If you like history you can touch: an empty saint's tomb, a miraculous image with arrows, a Roman plateau, an imperial château that Wilhelm II bought through a front man, and at the end 6,500 square metres of glass. Ideal too if you don't need the Alps — 2,002 metres of ascent over 142.8 kilometres, highest point 400 metres, that is upland walking on an after-work scale. And ideal if you want to arrive by train: Zweibrücken, Sarreguemines and Metz are all on the network, and Sarreguemines is the best mid-route entry point a Way of St James could have.

To be honest, though, it is not for you if you expect a hostel network. There isn't one — you book hotels, inns, holiday flats and chambres d'hôtes, and in the Lorraine villages between Saint-Avold and Courcelles-Chaussy it gets thin; gaps like these are planned away beforehand, not on the trail. Nor is it for you if you are looking for St James by the wayside: the way belongs to Pirmin, Nabor, Mary and Stephen; the apostle appears exactly once, as the name of a square in Metz. And if you want solitude — the Bliesgau has 311 inhabitants per square kilometre, and the Lorraine stages pass through a coalfield in decline. This is cultural landscape, not wilderness.

Route & Landscape

You start in Hornbach on the edge of the Palatinate Forest, between the walls of an abbey that has stood there since 742. Via Ringweilerhof, Altheim and Böckweiler, where the Church of St Stephen carries a three-apse choir from the 12th century, you climb into the Bliesgau, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 26 May 2009: 36,152 hectares of orchard meadows and semi-dry limestone grassland in which 25 of Germany's 50 orchid species grow — a cultural landscape that only emerged after 1820 from abandoned fields and is thus younger than the way. Via Medelsheim with its altar retable of 1430, Herbitzheim on the Blies and Bebelsheim you reach Gräfinthal, the monastery of a countess who died in 1273. From Bliesransbach and Auersmacher the way runs against the flow of the Blies, and in Rilchingen-Hanweiler you cross the border.

In Sarreguemines the Blies flows into the Saar — hence the name, first recorded in 706 as "Gaimundas". From here the way passes through the coal and ceramics country of Lorraine: via Nousseviller-Saint-Nabor, Tenteling and Folkling to Cocheren, where a Roman hilltop settlement lay on the Hérapel at 329 metres and where the Nordweg and Südweg join. Via Hombourg-Bas you reach Saint-Avold, then the last two stages lead over open plateaux — Bambiderstroff, Guinglange, Fouligny — down into the valley of the Nied at Pange, past Laquenexy with its twenty orchard gardens to Metz, where the cathedral stands above the Moselle. Surface: field, forest and meadow paths in the Bliesgau; in Lorraine considerably more village-to-village roads, because the GR 5G strings the villages together. The elevation is spread out in small pieces — between 170 and 400 metres there is no long climb, but constant up and down over shell-limestone ridges and stream valleys.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

The operator does not divide the route continuously but into blocks: Südweg Hornbach – Hérapel "ca. 63 km", Lorraine Hérapel – Metz "ca. 72 km". Only the three Saarland stages of Saarpfalz-Touristik are published precisely (14.5 / 16.0 / 14.2 km = 44.7 km). We adopt these unchanged and divide the remaining 98.1 kilometres into five stages based on the waypoints and the published walking times — calibrated to the 142.8 kilometres of our route data; the association's rough total of around 135 kilometres is just under 6 percent below that, as is to be expected with "approx." figures.

1. Hornbach – Böckweiler – Medelsheim (14.5 km) — abbey tomb, trefoil choir, Bliesgau hills; destination St Martin with the retable of 1430.
2. Medelsheim – Herbitzheim – Gräfinthal (16.0 km) — Blies meadows, orchards, Williamite monastery with the miraculous image.
3. Gräfinthal – Bliesransbach – Rilchingen-Hanweiler (14.2 km) — against the flow of the Blies to the border; thermal baths.
4. Rilchingen-Hanweiler – Sarreguemines (8.5 km) — border crossing, ceramics town, Bliesmühle; deliberately short, can be added to stage 3 or 5.
5. Sarreguemines – Nousseviller-Saint-Nabor – Cocheren (24.0 km) — Lorraine hill country, Roman Hérapel; this is where the Nordweg joins.
6. Cocheren – Hombourg-Bas – Saint-Avold (17.0 km) — collegiate town of Hombourg-Haut up on the slope, Abbey of Saint-Nabor, US military cemetery.
7. Saint-Avold – Bambiderstroff – Guinglange – Courcelles-Chaussy (29.0 km) — open plateaux without a larger town, imperial château of Urville; the hard stage.
8. Courcelles-Chaussy – Pange – Laquenexy – Metz (19.6 km) — Nied valley, orchard gardens, Saint-Étienne Cathedral.

Difficulty: easy to moderate — nothing is alpine, but the 2,002 metres of ascent come as constant up and down; according to Saarpfalz-Touristik, stage 1 brings 239 metres of climbing over 14.5 kilometres, and that is the rhythm of the whole way. The hardest day is stage 7 with 29 kilometres over the plateaux — egotrek allows eight hours; you can split it at Bambiderstroff or Guinglange, but check accommodation there beforehand. The waymarking changes mid-route: in Germany the white shell on blue plus shell stones, from the border the red-and-white GR 5G — the most common orientation error on this route, so a GPX track is essential. Lots of tarmac in Lorraine, so soles to match; for stage 7 two litres of water and food, there is little between the villages.

An Empty Tomb at the Start, an Empty Square at the End

Two empty spaces hold this way together. The first lies in Hornbach: in 742 the itinerant bishop Pirmin — previously founder of Reichenau and Murbach — founded the abbey in the Bliesgau on land belonging to a man named Warnharius, confirmed by the Bishop of Metz; on 3 November 753 he died there. Around 814 Abbot Wyerund had the bones reburied in a new church; in the 11th century a 71-metre-long pillared basilica with five towers stood here, and in 1135 Henry V granted the right to mint coins. Then came the Reformation: in 1557 the abbey was dissolved, in 1558 Pirmin's relics went to Speyer Cathedral, and from 1575 parts travelled on to Innsbruck. When archaeologists opened the apse between 1953 and 1955, they found a conical tomb with a trapezoidal staircase — and it was empty. Since 1957 a chapel has stood above it. The point lies in the direction: both Palatinate Ways of St James come from Speyer and end here — whoever walks them retraces the path of the relics backwards, from the place of keeping to the origin. Incidentally: Pirmin's treatise "De singulis libris canonicis scarapsus" contains the earliest known version of the Apostles' Creed in the form in which it is prayed today.

The second empty space lies in Metz, and it is the more honest one. On a Way of St James you expect St James — here you won't find him. In 142.8 kilometres there is not a single church dedicated to St James: Hornbach belongs to Pirmin, Böckweiler to Stephen, Medelsheim to Martin, Herbitzheim to Barbara, Gräfinthal to the Mother of God "Unsere Liebe Frau mit den Pfeilen", Saint-Avold to the martyr Nabor, Hombourg-Haut to Stephen again. Exactly once the apostle appears, at the destination: the Place Saint-Jacques in Metz has borne its name since the 12th century because the Église Saint-Jacques stood there — in 1574 it was abandoned. What remained is the name; it survived the renamings to Place de la République and Place d'Austerlitz and twice, 1874 to 1918 and 1940 to 1944, the "Jakobsplatz". Today the cafés stand there and, since 15 August 1924, a column to the Virgin, eight metres of Jaumont limestone, donated after a wartime vow by the people of Metz. Walking this way therefore does not mean going from St James church to St James church. It means walking towards a square that has kept a saint in its name whose house has been missing for 450 years — and one can find that more honest than any reconstruction.

Why the way nevertheless leads to Metz and not to Trier or Strasbourg is explained by 8th-century bishops. Hornbach lay in the Diocese of Metz. In Saint-Avold, Bishop Sigebald of Metz had the abbey "Nova Cella" built in the early 8th century, and in 765 Bishop Chrodegang brought the relics of the martyrs Nabor and Felix there; in the mouths of Lorraine, "Sankt Nabor" became Santerfor, Saint-Avaux and, from 1750, Saint-Avold — the town where you sleep on stage 6 is a saint's name worn smooth by speech. Shortly before, in 1254, a third bishop of Metz, Jacques de Lorraine, founded a castle and collegiate church above Hombourg-Bas. Whoever walks from Hornbach to Metz follows no tourist line but the administrative axis of a diocese.

Highlights Along the Way

• Hornbach Abbey — founded in 742 by Saint Pirmin, confirmed by the Bishop of Metz; in the 11th century a 71.40-metre-long pillared basilica with five towers, minting rights from Henry V in 1135. Today a hotel, the Historama abbey museum and the Pirminius Chapel of 1957 above the empty tomb.
• Church of St Stephen, Böckweiler — on Carolingian foundations of the 9th century, with a three-apse choir from the 12th century whose ground plan describes a trefoil; one of 65 shared Protestant-Catholic churches in Germany, the only one in Saarland.
• St Martin in Medelsheim — Baroque building 1774–1776, destroyed by artillery on 13 September 1939, re-consecrated in 1949; in the old Gothic choir frescoes of the 14th century and an altar retable of around 1430, only rediscovered in 1956. Pilgrimage site of the Diocese of Speyer.
• Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve — UNESCO recognition on 26 May 2009, 36,152 hectares, around 14 percent of Saarland, 25 of Germany's 50 orchid species, red kite, white stork, beaver — with 311 inhabitants per square kilometre.
• Gräfinthal Monastery — endowed in the mid-13th century by Countess Elisabeth of Blieskastel, according to tradition in gratitude for the healing of an eye ailment; the pietà "Unsere Liebe Frau mit den Pfeilen" is unique. A Williamite convent, on its dissolution in 1785 the last in the Empire; renovated 1714–1719 by King Stanislaus Leszczyński; inhabited by monks again since 1993.
• Sarreguemines — first mentioned in 706 as "Gaimundas", after the confluence of the Blies and the Saar; ceramics town since 1790, at the European forefront around 1900, production ended in 2007. The Bliesmühle as ceramics museum, the Casino with ceramic pictures, workers' housing estate of 1868. The station of 1865 is the only French station with German railway electrification.
• Le Hérapel near Cocheren — Roman hilltop settlement at 329 metres, twelve hectares, an octagonal building 32 metres in diameter at its centre; abandoned abruptly after the Germanic invasion of 407, excavations since 1753. This is where the Nordweg and Südweg meet.
• Hombourg-Haut — founded in 1254 by Bishop Jacques de Lorraine with castle and collegiate church, town charter in 1283; collegiate church of Saint-Étienne from the 14th century, Chapelle Sainte-Catherine from the 13th.
• Abbey of Saint-Nabor, Saint-Avold — founded by Bishop Sigebald in the early 8th century, relics of the martyrs Nabor and Felix brought by Chrodegang in 765; Baroque church 1754–1769, today parish church of the Diocese of Metz. Plus the Lorraine American Cemetery: 10,489 graves on 46 hectares, the largest American military cemetery of the Second World War in Europe.
• Château d'Urville and the Kaiserkirche, Courcelles-Chaussy — Wilhelm II bought the château on 15 July 1890 through a front man and came fourteen times up to 1912; the Protestant court church was designed by Paul Tornow, cathedral architect of Metz, and inaugurated on 17 October 1895 in the emperor's presence.
• Château de Pange — built in 1720 in the Louis XV style on the former border between the Duchy of Lorraine and France, five hectares of garden by Louis Benech (2003); currently closed to individual visitors for renovation.
• Les Jardins Fruitiers de Laquenexy — around twenty themed gardens of the Département Moselle, a "Jardin remarquable"; 1 April to 1 November, admission 7 €, reduced 5 € (as of September 2026).
• Saint-Étienne Cathedral, Metz — built 1220 to 1520, vaults over 41 metres, around 6,500 square metres of glass and thus the largest glazing of any French cathedral, "La lanterne du Bon Dieu"; windows after Marc Chagall, main portal 1898–1903 by Paul Tornow — the same architect as the Kaiserkirche of Courcelles-Chaussy.
• Place Saint-Jacques, Metz — name since the 12th century, church abandoned in 1574; today cafés and the column to the Virgin of 1924.

How Pilgrims Reach This Way

The start is unusually clearly arranged: both Palatinate Ways of St James end in Hornbach. The Pfälzer Nordroute comes from the imperial cathedral in Speyer via the Speyerbach and the Palatinate Forest, the Pfälzer Südroute via the Rhine plain, the Wine Route and the Wasgau. Whoever has walked one of them stands at the abbey gate with a choice: go home — or walk on. This way exists precisely for that moment. Whoever only had a long weekend knows the beginning of the southern route from the Jakobsweg Speyer – Bad Bergzabern.

From the north, the Klosterroute Worms also feeds in, leading from Worms Cathedral through the northern Palatinate to Landstuhl, where it meets the Pfälzer Nordroute — its printed guide is called "Von Worms bis Metz", so the long-distance route is already in mind. And whoever chose the Nordweg via Saarbrücken instead of the Südweg meets you near Cocheren on the Hérapel; from there the way continues together, 72 kilometres to Metz. Whoever wants to join mid-route takes the Saarbahn from Saarbrücken to Sarreguemines — it has crossed the border since 1997.

Walking On?

In Metz this way does not end, it is handed over. From the cathedral the long-distance route Trier – Le Puy continues — it comes from Trier via Metz and heads towards Le Puy-en-Velay, where the Via Podiensis begins, the classic French main route over the Pyrenees to Spain. On the French side the Amis de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle Région Lorraine maintain the corridor through Metz as the Chemin Lorrain, from Apach and Schengen on the Luxembourg border via Metz and Toul to Langres, around 60 municipalities in five départements; from Langres the way opens up towards Vézelay and Le Puy. The Chemin Lorrain does not have its own page with us — the corridor is contained in Trier – Le Puy.

Whoever prefers to head east takes the Voie d'Alsace through Alsace towards Belfort and Switzerland. And whoever wants to start afresh at the other end of the Moselle finds in Trier the Mosel-Camino from Koblenz to the only apostle's tomb north of the Alps. Whoever has had enough for now takes the TGV in Metz.

Preparation & Practical Matters

The season runs from April to October; the Bliesgau is at its finest in May and June when the orchids bloom, and in autumn the orchard meadows hang full. In winter the way is walkable, but the Lorraine stages are then long, wet and short on accommodation. There is no hostel network. You book hotels, inns, holiday flats and chambres d'hôtes: the Hotel Kloster Hornbach in the abbey buildings at the start, the guesthouse Alte Klostermühle in Gräfinthal, hotels in Sarreguemines and Saint-Avold, in Metz among others the Auberge de Jeunesse. Between Saint-Avold and Courcelles-Chaussy it gets thin — reserve this stretch first; gaps like these are planned away beforehand, not on the trail. The easiest way is to plan stages and lodgings directly in the Camino Ninja app.

The credencial is issued by the St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland, free for members, otherwise for a donation. Specifically for this route there is the regional pilgrim passport "Auf den Spuren der Jakobspilger von Hornbach über Saarbrücken/Sarreguemines nach Metz" with over 30 stamping points from Hornbach Abbey to the cathedral, available at the Wintringer Kapelle for 2 € (as of September 2026). It does not entitle you to the Compostela. The waymarking: in Germany the white shell on a blue background and the stone shell stones of the Sternenweg, casts of Galician originals, hand-made since 2006 in work-qualification programmes; from the border the GR 5G in red and white. Language: German as far as Rilchingen-Hanweiler, then French — in Sarreguemines and Saint-Avold German often still helps, in the villages between Bambiderstroff and Pange less so. Equipment: rain jacket, soles for tarmac, cash for small villages, two litres of water and provisions for stage 7.

What the Way Costs

To be honest, the biggest lever on this way is not the food but the gap: where accommodation is missing in Lorraine, you pay for the next hotel plus a taxi. All amounts are guide values (as of September 2026); only the individual items are documented: pilgrim passport 2 €, credencial for a donation of about 5 €, Laquenexy 7 €. A bed in the Metz youth hostel costs 25–40 €, an inn or chambre d'hôtes for one person 45–70 €, a mid-range hotel double room 80–130 €, the Hotel Kloster Hornbach in the wellness segment from about 150 €. A snack at the boulangerie costs 5–10 €, a simple dinner 15–25 €, a set menu in a French restaurant 25–40 €, self-catering 10–15 € a day.

Realistic daily budget: frugal with a cheap guesthouse and self-catering 55–80 €, mid-range with an inn and one hot meal 85–120 €. For eight stages that comes to roughly 440–640 € frugal and 680–960 € mid-range, excluding travel. Saarpfalz-Touristik offers the three Saarland stages as a package from 129 € per person; churches and monasteries cost nothing, Laquenexy 7 €, the 568-page Sternenweg documentation 25 €.

Getting There

To the start (Hornbach): Hornbach has no railway station. The nearest rail hub is Zweibrücken Hauptbahnhof, from where bus line 236 runs to Hornbach; from the other direction line 240 comes from Pirmasens. You reach Zweibrücken and Pirmasens from Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken and Mannheim. If you come by car, park at the abbey.

Along the way: Sarreguemines is the best mid-route entry point — the Saarbahn has run across the border from Saarbrücken since 1997, plus TER Grand Est towards Saarbrücken, Strasbourg and Metz. Saint-Avold lies on the Metz – Forbach railway line. From the finish (Metz): Metz-Ville is a TGV station on the LGV Est with connections to Paris, Luxembourg and Strasbourg; regional trains run to Saarbrücken and Nancy. Whoever walks on simply stays put: Trier – Le Puy begins in front of the cathedral.

• Rail Germany: bahn.de — Zweibrücken, Pirmasens, Saarbrücken; bus 236/240 to Hornbach
• Rail France: sncf-connect.com — Sarreguemines, Saint-Avold, Metz-Ville
• Operator, credencial, route description: jakobusgesellschaft.eu — St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland
• Sternenweg / Chemin des étoiles: regionalverband-saarbruecken.de — shell stones, monuments, documentation
• Saarland stages, pilgrim package: saarpfalz-touristik.de — stages 1–3, from 129 € p. p.