Münchner Jakobsweg

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Munich, St. Jakob am Anger on Sankt-Jakobs-Platz / Lindau on Lake Constance (island, km 282.4); the Camino Ninja map ends in Lindau, while the official 2003 description continues to Bregenz
• Length: 283.4 km
• Duration: 13 stages, averaging just under 22 km; with a rest day in Kempten, about two weeks
• Elevation: ↗ 5,540 m / ↘ 5,656 m
• Highest point: 1,089 m at km 222.3 between Rechtis and Weitnau; lowest point 395 m on the shore of Lake Constance
• Landscape: the high banks of the Isar and the Forstenried woods, the Five Lakes Country with Lake Starnberg and the Ammersee, the moraine hills and moors of the Pfaffenwinkel, the Lech valley, Eastern Allgäu pastures with Alpine views, the ridges of the Western Allgäu, and finally the descent to the lake
• Operator / Waymarking: inaugurated in May 2003; yellow scallop shell on a blue background
• Traces of St. James: St. Jakob am Anger in Munich, a Franciscan convent church since 1221; the Jakobidult fair on the Anger since 1310; the parish church of St. Jakob in Wildsteig with high-altar figures by the Master of the Blutenburg Apostles from the 15th century
• Accommodation: hardly any classic pilgrim hostels; inns, guesthouses, monastery guest houses and a few private pilgrim lodgings – book early
• Connecting routes: Jakobsweg Isar-Inn from Schäftlarn, Voralpiner Jakobsweg on the Hoher Peißenberg, Via Romea Germanica near Rottenbuch, Augsburg Way of St. James in Ermengerst, Jakobsweg Tirol-Allgäu in Zell, Lindau – Héricourt from Lindau
• Best time: May to October; in the Western Allgäu, above 900 meters, snow can linger into April
• Pilgrim passport: a credencial with stamps from parish offices, monasteries and inns; there is no dedicated certificate at the finish

Overview

The Münchner Jakobsweg begins at a place where St. James has been at home for more than 800 years. In 1221 the Franciscans took over a chapel of the apostle on the Unterer Anger; in 1310 the Jakobidult was held outside its door for the first time, and to this day the fair opens on the Saturday after St. James's Day. The route itself is young: it was inaugurated in May 2003, from the Anger convent all the way to Lake Constance. In between, it crosses a landscape that already had a nickname in 1756 – Pfaffenwinkel, the monks' corner.

And that is exactly how it walks: Schäftlarn, Andechs, Dießen, Wessobrunn, Rottenbuch, Steingaden, plus the Wies and the Hoher Peißenberg, all within five days. After that it gets quieter. The Allgäu has cows, hills and Kempten, a town Strabo already knew as Kambodunon around the birth of Christ. On the last day you descend from a good 760 to 400 meters and stand at the harbor entrance of Lindau before the Bavarian lion of 1856. Along the way, one simple equation holds: you pass more monasteries than pilgrim hostels – and in the Spanish sense, there isn't a single one of those.

Other Names

The route is called the Münchner Jakobsweg (Munich Way of St. James); that's what it says on the signposts and in the guidebooks. Because it was waymarked to Bregenz when it opened, you'll also read Jakobsweg München–Bregenz; in brochures, the Allgäu sections simply appear as Jakobsweg im Allgäu. In the Western Allgäu it shares its path with the Bayerisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg (Bavarian-Swabian Way of St. James), which we call the Augsburg Way of St. James – so don't be surprised if two different shells hang on the same post there.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

Ideal if you live in southern Germany and want to set off from your own doorstep: commuter rail for the first three days, train stations in Dießen, Kempten and Oberstaufen, and a long-distance station at the end. Ideal if churches interest you more than kilometers: between Andechs and Steingaden you pass seven monasteries and pilgrimage churches in five days. And ideal as the first leg of a long line, because at Lake Constance the way continues west.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you want to pilgrim on a budget: with no chain of hostels, you pay inn prices every night. It's not for you if you're looking for solitude – the Five Lakes Country and the Pfaffenwinkel are day-trip country, and on weekends you'll share the Kiental path to Andechs with half of Munich. And it's not for you if you expect flat terrain: 5,540 meters of climbing over 283 kilometers is almost 20 per kilometer, and the Allgäu doesn't stop going up and down until shortly before the lake.

Route & Landscape

Munich to Hohenpeißenberg (km 0–110.1): From Sankt-Jakobs-Platz you head to the Isar and south along its high bank, via Pullach (km 12.3) and Baierbrunn (km 18.1). Schäftlarn Abbey lies just under a kilometer off the route, down in the Isar valley. Via Neufahrn and Manthal you reach Starnberg (km 34.9), then pass through the Maisinger Schlucht gorge to the Holy Mountain of Andechs (km 50.6) and descend through the Kiental to Herrsching (km 54.0). The route circles the northern end of the Ammersee: Inning and Eching stay a good half to one kilometer off the trail, and via Schondorf (km 71.1) and Riederau you come to Dießen (km 82.9) with its Marienmünster. Then the land rises: Wessobrunn (km 96.6) and the pilgrimage mountain Hoher Peißenberg, 988 meters high, with an Alpine panorama some 200 kilometers wide.

Hohenpeißenberg to Lindau (km 110.1–283.4): Peiting stays three kilometers off the route; via Rottenbuch (km 122.9) and Wildsteig (km 127.6) you reach the Wies (km 132.8) and Steingaden (km 137.3). At Lechbruck (km 144.4) you cross the Lech, then climb via Bernbeuren onto the Auerberg (km 154.2, 1,030 m according to the map) and descend to Marktoberdorf (km 169.7). Via Thingau you come to Kempten (km 200.9). Görisried and Betzigau lie two to three kilometers from the trail. West of Kempten the Western Allgäu begins: Ermengerst (km 209.6), Buchenberg, the ridge near Rechtis with the highest point (1,089 m, km 222.3), Weitnau (km 227.7) and Zell (km 244.0) – Oberstaufen lies two kilometers off the route. Via Weiler-Simmerberg and Lindenberg (km 261.0) the trail drops via Kinberg, Sigmarszell and Weißensberg to the lake and across the causeway onto the island of Lindau (km 282.4).

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

The distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 283.4 km. We divide the route into 13 stages with overnight stops; older guidebooks manage with 11 longer days, and if you want a gentler pace, plan 14 to 15.

1. Munich → Baierbrunn (18.1 km) — Out of the old town to the Isar and along the high bank, with Pullach and Grünwald on either side of the river.
2. Baierbrunn → Starnberg (16.8 km) — Past Schäftlarn Abbey and through forest and moraine hills to Lake Starnberg.
3. Starnberg → Herrsching (19.1 km) — Through the Maisinger Schlucht to Andechs Abbey, then down the Kiental to the Ammersee.
4. Herrsching → Dießen (28.9 km) — Flat around the lake along the northern shore; if you want a shortcut, take the boat across.
5. Dießen → Hohenpeißenberg (27.2 km) — The first real climb: via Wessobrunn up onto the Hoher Peißenberg.
6. Hohenpeißenberg → Steingaden (27.2 km) — Pure Pfaffenwinkel: Rottenbuch, Wildsteig, the Wieskirche, Steingaden.
7. Steingaden → Stötten (21.3 km) — Across the Lech at Lechbruck and up onto the Auerberg, the lookout mountain of the Eastern Allgäu.
8. Stötten → Unterthingau (21.4 km) — Pastures and hamlets, with a lunch break in Marktoberdorf.
9. Unterthingau → Kempten (20.9 km) — Through the Kempten Forest down into the Iller valley; Görisried and Betzigau off to the side.
10. Kempten → Weitnau (26.8 km) — The toughest stage: via Ermengerst and Buchenberg to the highest point near Rechtis and down to Weitnau.
11. Weitnau → Zell (16.3 km) — A short hilly stage via Missen-Wilhams; in Zell the Jakobsweg Tirol-Allgäu joins.
12. Zell → Lindenberg (17.0 km) — Via Hopfen and Weiler-Simmerberg into the old hat-making town.
13. Lindenberg → Lindau (22.4 km) — The long descent via Kinberg, Sigmarszell and Weißensberg onto the island.

The surface is mixed: forest and farm tracks, meadow paths, and in the Five Lakes Country a lot of asphalt on side roads. Nothing is technically difficult. Stages 5, 6 and 10 are strenuous, with climbs of several hundred meters at a stretch. After rain, the meadow paths and pasture crossings in the Allgäu get slippery, and at the pasture fences the rule is: close the gate behind you.

A Farmer's Wife Saw Tears, a Monastery Ran Up Debts: the Wies

In 1730, Father Magnus Straub and Brother Lukas Schweiger of Steingaden Abbey carved a figure of the scourged Savior for the Good Friday procession. It was carried from 1732 to 1734, then no longer, and in 1738 it passed into the hands of a farmer on the Wies. On June 14, 1738, according to tradition, the farmer's wife Maria Lory noticed „in den Augen der Figur einige Tropfen, die sie für Tränen hielt“ (“a few drops in the figure's eyes, which she took for tears”). A year later a field chapel stood there, from 1744 Mass could be said in it, and pilgrims came in such numbers that Steingaden built a church of its own.

The builders were the brothers Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann; the choir was consecrated in 1749, the whole church in 1754. The budget was 39,000 guilders; it ended up costing 180,000. The abbey sank deep into debt as a result; in 1803 it was dissolved. A popular story has it that the state then wanted to auction off or tear down the Wies. The records show the opposite: according to the files, the dissolution commission expressly recommended that the pilgrimage continue. Since 1983 the Wieskirche has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and more than a million people come every year. The church was built for a wooden figure nobody needed anymore – and it outlived the abbey that built it.

In practical terms: don't plan the Wies on stage 6 as a quick lunch stop in passing. Come early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the tour buses are gone; then you'll have the Scourged Savior on the high altar almost to yourself. In Steingaden, the Welfenmünster of 1147 deserves a second look – this is where the Wies was paid from.

Highlights Along the Way

• St. Jakob am Anger (km 0) — Munich's oldest convent, founded by Franciscans in 1221, home to Poor Clares since 1284, destroyed down to its outer walls in December 1944 and rebuilt by Friedrich Haindl from 1955 to 1957.
• Andechs Abbey (km 50.6) — in 1388 a reliquary treasure with the Three Holy Hosts was found beneath the altar of the castle chapel; it went to Munich first and returned in 1394; a Benedictine monastery since 1455, Rococo by Johann Baptist Zimmermann from 1751 to 1755, the grave of Carl Orff, and the monastery beer.
• Marienmünster Dießen (km 82.9) — built from 1732 to 1739 by Johann Michael Fischer for the Augustinian canons.
• Wessobrunn (km 96.6) — the monastery village of the Tassilo legend of 753, which gave its name to the Wessobrunn stucco artists and the Wessobrunn Prayer.
• Hoher Peißenberg (km 110.1) — a pilgrimage church above the chapel of 1514 and the oldest mountain weather station in the world.
• Rottenbuch (km 122.9) — Augustinian canons' foundation of 1073, the church of the Nativity of Mary with stucco by Joseph Schmuzer.
• Wieskirche (km 132.8) — Rococo by the Zimmermann brothers, World Heritage Site since 1983.
• Auerberg (km 154.2) — the church of St. Georg on the summit, beneath it a Roman settlement that, according to tree rings, began no later than 13 AD; views from the Wendelstein to the Bregenz Forest.
• Basilica of St. Lorenz, Kempten (km 200.9) — built from 1652 to 1666, one of the first major churches built after the Thirty Years' War.
• Lindenberg (km 261.0) — a straw-hat town since 1656, with the German Hat Museum in an old hat factory.
• Lindau (km 282.4) — the harbor entrance with the lion and lighthouse of 1856, and St. Peter's Church with the Lindau Passion, attributed to Holbein the Elder.

Canons with Thermometers: the Pfaffenwinkel Takes Notes

The monasteries along the way didn't just pray – they wrote things down. For centuries, Wessobrunn held the Wessobrunn Prayer, one of the oldest Christian texts in the German language, composed around 790 and copied around 814. It begins with the world before the world: „Dat gafregin ih mit firahim firiuuizzo meista, dat ero ni uuas noh ufhimil“ – “This I learned among men as the greatest of wonders: that there was neither earth nor heaven above.” The twist: the manuscript was probably not even written in Wessobrunn, and today it sits as Clm 22053 in the Bavarian State Library – in Munich, where you set out.

Two stages further on stands the second scriptorium. On January 1, 1781, the Augustinian canons of Rottenbuch began daily weather records on the Hoher Peißenberg, at 7 a.m., 2 p.m. and 9 p.m., as part of the network of the Mannheim Meteorological Society. When state funding dried up, the canons paid out of their own pockets; secularization dissolved the foundation in 1803, but the series of measurements carried on. It became the oldest mountain weather station in the world. So if you get caught in the rain on the Peißenberg, you're part of the longest mountain weather record there is.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Most start in Munich, arriving by long-distance train or plane from every direction. Others come via one of the routes that join along the way:

• Voralpiner Jakobsweg — from Salzburg through the Chiemgau and the Tölzer Land; on the Hoher Peißenberg the Munich route takes over.
• Augsburg Way of St. James — from Oettingen via Augsburg through the Unterallgäu, sharing the path toward Lake Constance from Ermengerst.
• Jakobsweg Tirol-Allgäu — from Stams in the Inn valley over the Fernpass, Gaichtpass and Oberjoch, joining in Zell at km 244.0, two stages before Lindau.
• Jakobsweg Isar-Inn — branches off the other way, south at Schäftlarn, over the Kesselberg and Mittenwald to Tyrol.
• Via Romea Germanica — the pilgrim route to Rome crosses near Rottenbuch and runs alongside for about ten kilometers.

Continue the pilgrimage?

Yes – westward. In Lindau begins Lindau – Héricourt, the route along the northern shore of Lake Constance to Konstanz, down the High Rhine to Basel and through the Burgundian Gate into France. From there, the French routes lead on toward the Pyrenees.

The official 2003 description doesn't end in Lindau but about ten kilometers further on in Bregenz, where the Austrian and Swiss routes begin. If you want to go there, keep walking along the shore or take the train or boat.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. As on all Camino routes, you need a pilgrim passport (credencial) to stay in pilgrim lodgings and – if one day you walk all the way to Santiago – to receive the Compostela at the end. It's best to order it online in advance so it reaches you in time for the start of your journey. You can get stamps at parish offices, monasteries, tourist information centers and many inns. The easiest way to plan the route is directly in the Camino Ninja App, where you put together your stages and plan suitable accommodation at the same time; you also have the map and track available offline there.

Accommodation. Don't count on hostels. There are inns, guesthouses, vacation apartments and, in some places, private pilgrim lodgings for a donation or a small fee. In the Five Lakes Country and around the Wies, book several days ahead on summer weekends; in Unterthingau, Stötten and Zell the options are limited.

Season. May to October is ideal. July and August are peak day-trip season at the lakes, while the Allgäu gets afternoon thunderstorms instead. From November into April, snow can lie on the Western Allgäu heights at around 900 to 1,000 meters.

What the journey will cost you

Bavaria is not a cheap place. A single room in an inn or guesthouse costs 60 to 95 € with breakfast, a double room 45 to 70 € per person; in Starnberg, Herrsching and Lindau you'll be at the upper end, while private pilgrim lodgings and monastery guest houses run 20 to 40 € or work on a donation basis (as of October 2026). A Brotzeit (traditional cold snack) at lunch, a hearty inn meal in the evening for 15 to 25 €.

Budget 80 to 120 € per day, or 50 to 70 € with pilgrim lodgings and self-catering. You can save on transport: with the Deutschlandticket for 63 € a month (as of October 2026), you can ride regional transport to the start, between stages and back from Lake Constance.

Getting Here

To the start. Munich Hauptbahnhof is a long-distance rail hub, and the airport is connected by S-Bahn commuter rail. From the main station it's a quarter-hour walk to Sankt-Jakobs-Platz. In the first few days the S-Bahn helps: Pullach and Baierbrunn are on the S7, Starnberg on the S6, and Herrsching on the S8 since 1972.

From the finish. Since December 2020, Lindau-Reutin has been a long-distance stop with direct trains to Munich and Zurich; Lindau's island station is two minutes from the harbor. Along the way you can get on and off in Dießen, Kempten and Oberstaufen.

• Rail: bahn.de — connections to Munich and from Lindau
• S-Bahn and buses around Munich: mvv-muenchen.de — timetable for the first three stages
• Boats on the Ammersee and Lake Constance: seenschifffahrt.de — Bavarian Lake Shipping, Ammersee lines