Sächsischer Jakobsweg

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Hammermühle in Bautzen, a pilgrim office shared with the Via Regia / Hof an der Saale
• Length: 308.1 km
• Duration: 14 stages, avg. 22 km; with a train station in almost every stage town, it also works in weekend-sized chunks
• Elevation: ↗ 3,661 m / ↘ 3,397 m
• Highest point: 627 m at km 287.9 between Triebel and Kugelreuth, on the last day
• Landscape: the granite country of Upper Lusatia, the Elbe valley in Dresden, the Tharandt Forest, mining towns in the Ore Mountain foothills, and finally the hills and reservoirs of the Vogtland
• Waymarking: yellow shell on a blue background, with the center of the shell pointing the way
• Traces of St. James: St. James's Church in Chemnitz with the apostle on the city's coat of arms, St. Jakobus in Pesterwitz, St. James's Church in Freiberg, St. Jakobi in Oelsnitz/Vogtland, St. Jacobus in Reinsdorf, and in Hof the pilgrim inn of 1487
• Accommodation: only a few pilgrim hostels (Bautzen, Pesterwitz, Jahnsdorf, Hof), plus parish rooms, guesthouses, inns and youth hostels from the association's directory; always call ahead
• Connecting routes: in Bautzen the Via Regia, in Jahnsdorf the Erz-Camino to Bohemia, from Zwickau the Via Imperii, from Hof the Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg
• Best time: April to October; the association's pilgrim passport for a 5 € donation (as of October 2026)

Overview

The Saxon Way of St. James is a route with a paper trail. It follows the Frankenstraße, documented since the 13th century: it branched off the Via Regia in Bautzen and cut diagonally south through Saxony toward Franconia. Settlers from Franconia came into the country along it, silver from Freiberg rolled out along it, and alongside merchants and carters went pilgrims from Lusatia and Silesia, heading for Nuremberg and on to the west. For them this was the shorter road to Santiago, shorter than the Via Regia via Erfurt.

Today you walk 308.1 kilometers through four cities with four completely different faces: bilingual, Sorbian Bautzen, baroque Dresden on the Elbe, the mining town of Freiberg, and Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025. After that it empties out—the Vogtland between Zwickau and Hof is the quietest part of the route. And because the Reformation ended pilgrimage here in 1539, this Way of St. James is at once one of Germany's oldest and one of its youngest: the road is 700 years old, the shells along it date from 2013.

Other Names

The association calls it Sächsischer Jakobsweg an der Frankenstraße; in everyday use you'll read Jakobsweg Sachsen or simply Frankenstraße. In English it is the Saxon Way of St. James. At the start you'll see bilingual signs: in Sorbian, Bautzen is Budyšin, and the toll decree of 1462 writes "Budissin"—an older form of the same name.

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

Ideal if you're looking for a German pilgrimage route with history and good infrastructure that you can walk in two weeks. The waymarking is reliable, almost every stage town has a train station, and with the Deutschlandticket (Germany's flat-rate regional rail pass) you can reach any section. Also ideal if you like cities: cathedral, Kreuzkirche, Silbermann organ and St. James's Church lie literally in your path.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you expect hostels on the Spanish model: there are only a handful of real pilgrim hostels, otherwise you sleep in guesthouses or parish rooms, and the association states it bluntly: "Eine vorherige telefonische Anmeldung ist unbedingt erforderlich!" (Booking ahead by phone is absolutely essential!) It's not for you if asphalt bothers you—between Chemnitz and Zwickau the main route runs alongside roads for long stretches, which is why the association itself recommends the variant via the Pilgerweg St. Anna. And it's not for you if you're after pilgrim company: in the Vogtland there are days when you won't meet a single person with a backpack.

Route & Landscape

Bautzen to Freiberg (km 0–118.4): The route begins at the Hammermühle below the Alte Wasserkunst, where the Via Regia and the Saxon Way of St. James share a pilgrim office. Heading west through granite country, you pass Göda (km 11.1) and Demitz-Thumitz (km 19.2) to Bischofswerda (km 25.8), then via Arnsdorf (km 41.9) and Großerkmannsdorf down into the Elbe valley. You come through Dresden's Neustadt, just under a kilometer off the line, cross the Elbe and stand in Dresden (km 68.7) at 117 meters, almost the lowest point of the route. Then it climbs to the Church of St. James in Pesterwitz (km 78.2) and through the Tharandt Forest via Grillenburg (km 99.5) to Freiberg (km 118.4); the old town with its cathedral lies just under a kilometer off the line.

Freiberg to Hof (km 118.4–308.1): Via Oederan (km 133.9) and the Flöha valley you reach Chemnitz (km 159.5). Beyond it begin the Ore Mountain foothills with Jahnsdorf (km 177.2), Stollberg (km 184.9) and the former hard-coal district around Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge (km 193.1) and Reinsdorf (km 208.4). The center of Zwickau lies 1.2 kilometers off the route—the detour to the cathedral is worth it. Then the Vogtland: Lengenfeld (km 239.1), Treuen (km 245.2), wide hills around Bergen (km 257.3), the townscape of Oelsnitz/Vogtland (km 272.3) below Voigtsberg Castle and the fortified church of Triebel (km 283.4). On the ridge beyond, at km 287.9, you reach the highest point at 627 meters, and via Trogenau and Kirchgattendorf you head down to Hof (km 308.1).

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

We show the route in 14 stages with distances from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 308.1 km. The association divides it into four sections and many short legs; the daily targets here are set by towns with beds. Two things to remember: Kurort Hartha lies 1.1 kilometers off the route, and Bergen and Triebel have only a few beds.

1. Bautzen → Bischofswerda (25.8 km) — through the granite country of Upper Lusatia, with places to stop in Göda and Demitz-Thumitz.
2. Bischofswerda → Großerkmannsdorf (25.7 km) — fields and woods via Großharthau and Arnsdorf.
3. Großerkmannsdorf → Dresden (17.2 km) — down into the Elbe valley and across the river into the old town.
4. Dresden → Kurort Hartha (25.3 km) — up to Pesterwitz with its pilgrim lodging, then into the Tharandt Forest.
5. Kurort Hartha → Freiberg (24.4 km) — via Grillenburg and Naundorf to the silver town.
6. Freiberg → Flöha (24.6 km) — via Oberschöna, Kirchbach and Oederan into the Flöha valley.
7. Flöha → Chemnitz (16.5 km) — a short day via Euba to St. James's Church.
8. Chemnitz → Jahnsdorf (17.7 km) — out of the city into the foothills, ending at the pilgrim hostel.
9. Jahnsdorf → Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge (15.9 km) — via Stollberg into the old coal district; if you'd rather avoid roads, take the Pilgerweg St. Anna from Jahnsdorf.
10. Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge → Zwickau (21.0 km) — via Reinsdorf, where the association was founded, to Robert Schumann's hometown.
11. Zwickau → Lengenfeld (25.0 km) — up into the Vogtland via Hirschfeld and Waldkirchen.
12. Lengenfeld → Bergen (18.2 km) — via Treuen and Schönau, rolling hills without a town.
13. Bergen → Triebel (26.1 km) — via Oelsnitz/Vogtland with St. Jakobi and Voigtsberg Castle to the fortified church.
14. Triebel → Hof (24.7 km) — over the 627-meter high point into Bavaria and down to the Saale.

Nothing is technically difficult, and it never gets alpine. What wears you out is the constant up and down: from 117 meters on the Elbe the route climbs stage by stage to over 600 meters in the Vogtland, and the total of 3,661 meters of ascent is spread across many short climbs. The surface mixes field and forest tracks with asphalt; in Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau you walk a few kilometers through suburbs each time.

Your Stage List Was Written in 1462

Elector Frederick II of Saxony had it written down in 1462 how the wagons were to travel: "von Budissin die Wagen, die gein Francken wollen, sullen von Budissin gegen uf Bischoffswerde, Dresden, Fribergk, Kempnitz, Zwickau, Voitzpergkgts und fort gein Francken." (The wagons from Bautzen bound for Franconia shall go from Bautzen to Bischofswerda, Dresden, Freiberg, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Voigtsberg and on into Franconia.) Budissin is Bautzen, Kempnitz is Chemnitz, and Voitzpergk is Voigtsberg Castle above Oelsnitz/Vogtland, built around 1232 to 1248 by the Vögte (reeves) of Straßberg. Lay the Camino Ninja map beside it: in the same order, these are your stage towns. You're walking a timetable that is 564 years old.

The toll decree isn't the only document. In 1378 the rent roll of the Margraves of Meissen names the Wiedersberg "auf der Passhöhe der Frankenstraße zwischen Hof und Plauen" (at the top of the Frankenstraße pass between Hof and Plauen); in 1449 Chemnitz is granted jurisdiction over the highways Zwickau–Chemnitz–Freiberg. And in Hof, "am Abend vor Jakobi 1487 erstmals etliche Betten hergerichtet" (on the eve of St. James's Day, a number of beds were made up for the first time) at the Gasthaus zum Pilgrim, "zur Herberge für durchreisende Jakobsbrüder" (as lodging for passing brothers of St. James). The inn kept that name until 1798, after which it was the Gasthaus zur Sonne.

All this was pieced together by Siegfried Bayer in two years of detective work for the association, and the result is remarkably honest. Bayer warns against turning every St. James church into a pilgrim route: "lediglich für die Jakobskirche in Zeitz ist ein Zusammenhang des Jakobuspatroziniums mit einer peregrinatio nach Santiago de Compostela belegt" (only for St. James's Church in Zeitz is a link between the dedication to St. James and a peregrinatio to Santiago de Compostela documented). There, around 1079, Wiprecht von Groitzsch set fire to the church of St. James, was sent to Rome as penance and from there on to Santiago, in 1088/89 according to Bayer. Afterward he founded St. James's Abbey in Pegau, consecrated in 1096. So the region's only Santiago pilgrim known by name came as an arsonist. Bayer's conclusion: pilgrims took the great trade roads, not the line of church dedications. The Frankenstraße, then, is not a pilgrim route posing as a trade road, but a trade road that pilgrims walked.

In practice, that means: stop briefly in Oelsnitz/Vogtland and look up at the castle that was already on the list as a station in 1462. And when you arrive in Hof, you'll know that more than five hundred years ago the first pilgrim bed was made up there for you.

Highlights Along the Way

• Bautzen (km 0) — mentioned in 1002 by Thietmar of Merseburg as "civitas Budusin"; since 1524 St. Peter's Cathedral has been Germany's first simultaneum church, shared by contract since 1543: the choir Catholic, the nave Protestant, the border at the rood-screen grille.
• Pesterwitz (km 78.2) — St. Jakobus, documented around 1100, the first church on the route that still bears the apostle's name today; pilgrim lodging in the old chapel.
• Freiberg (km 118.4) — a silver town since 1168; in the cathedral, the Golden Portal from around 1230, the Tulip Pulpit from around 1505 and Silbermann's first large organ from 1714. Plus St. James's Church, the parish church of Christiansdorf around 1160, rebuilt 1890 to 1892, with a Silbermann organ from 1716/17.
• Chemnitz (km 159.5) — mentioned in 1143 as "Kameniz"; St. James's Church, with its hall choir from 1405 to 1412, is the city's mother church, and the city's coat of arms shows the apostle's bust.
• Jahnsdorf (km 177.2) — pilgrim hostel and junction for the Erz-Camino to Kadaň and the Pilgerweg St. Anna.
• Zwickau (km 214.1, center 1.2 km off the route) — St. Mary's Cathedral with the Wolgemut altarpiece from around 1479, Peter Breuer's Pietà from 1502 and the Holy Sepulchre from 1507.
• Oelsnitz/Vogtland (km 272.3) — St. Jakobi, first mentioned in 1227, and Voigtsberg Castle from the toll decree; once Germany's largest center for Axminster carpets.
• Triebel (km 283.4) — the fortified church of St. Ägidien collapsed in 1988; a support association founded in 2008 rebuilt it and it reopened in 2018; on World Pilgrim Day 2026 a pilgrim bench was dedicated here.
• Hof (km 308.1) — the Hospital Church from 1268 and the pilgrim inn from 1487; the Diakonie's pilgrim hostel with four beds.

St. James on the Coat of Arms: Where the Apostle Still Lives Along the Way

Bayer is right: a church dedication proves no pilgrim traffic. But it shows to whom the people along the road entrusted their churches. In Chemnitz, St. James's Church was left in ruins after the air raid of March 5, 1945; the vault collapsed in August 1945, the bell tower in February 1946. Its choir was back in use for services as early as 1949, but the nave only on July 19, 2009—six days before the Feast of St. James. In the same city, in the Zeisigwald forest, a milestone says it is 3,029 kilometers from St. James's Church to Santiago.

Then there are the quiet St. Jameses: St. Jakobi in Oelsnitz/Vogtland, where the pilgrim service on World Pilgrim Day 2026 was held, the Church of St. James in Pesterwitz and St. Jacobus in Reinsdorf, built in 1891 by Oskar Mothes and the tallest church in the former district of Zwickau. In Reinsdorf, on June 10, 2009, sixteen people founded the association that has waymarked and looked after the route ever since.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

The classic approach comes from the east. The Via Regia, the Ecumenical Pilgrim Way from Görlitz heading west, passes through Bautzen; at the Hammermühle you decide whether to go straight on toward Leipzig and Erfurt or angle south onto the Frankenstraße. That very choice was already in the toll decree of 1462.

Other routes touch the Saxon Way of St. James along the way:

• Erz-Camino — branches off in Jahnsdorf and leads via Annaberg-Buchholz and the crest of the Ore Mountains to Kadaň in Bohemia; if you're coming from Bohemia, this is where you join.
• Via Imperii — the imperial road from Szczecin via Berlin and Leipzig, sharing the same corridor from Zwickau to Hof.
• Königsbrück–Coswig–Grumbach variant — a link from the Via Regia waymarked by the association, joining near Grumbach west of Dresden.

Continue the pilgrimage?

In Hof the Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg takes over and brings you via Bayreuth and Franconian Switzerland to St. Jakob in Nuremberg. The Via Imperii also ends in Hof; if you walked it from Zwickau, you'll meet the same connection here. The Camino Ninja planner combines the routes automatically, just as they meet on the signposts.

If you want to draw the whole line, follow the math of the Chemnitz milestone: via Hof, Nuremberg, Ulm, Konstanz, the Via Jacobi through Switzerland, the Via Gebennensis and Via Podiensis through France, and the Camino Francés. By that reckoning, from Hof it's 2,886 kilometers.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. As on every Camino, you need a pilgrim passport (credencial) to stay in pilgrim lodgings and to receive the Compostela in Santiago at the end. It's best to order it online in advance so it reaches you in time for the start of your trip. The association issues its own pilgrim passport, which according to the association is also valid on all other routes in Germany; in Bautzen you can get three stamps right away at the Hammermühle, then in churches, tourist offices and hostels all the way to St. Marien in Hof. The easiest way to plan the route is directly in the Camino Ninja App, where you can put your stages together and plan suitable accommodation along with them.

Lodging. The association's accommodation directory lists pilgrim hostels and pilgrim-friendly places: the parish room of St. Petri in Bautzen for up to six people, a guesthouse in Demitz-Thumitz, two rooms in the old chapel in Pesterwitz, the Catholic parish in Freiberg by donation, the Chemnitz youth hostel, the pilgrim hostel in Jahnsdorf and the Diakonie room in Hof. Call ahead everywhere; in Bautzen reservations aren't possible.

Season and navigation. The route is at its best from April to October; the cities work year-round, but the Vogtland gets cold and lonely in winter. The shell is placed consistently in the direction of Hof, and the association's pilgrim guide is available in a revised edition from fall 2025.

What the journey will cost you

Pilgrim lodgings are cheap: Hof 8 €, Pesterwitz 15 €, Demitz-Thumitz 30 €, Jahnsdorf 40 € per person, Freiberg by donation (as of October 2026). Guesthouses and simple hotels usually run 45 to 70 € for a single room. From the association, the pilgrim passport costs a 5 € donation, the pilgrim guide 17 €, both together 20 €, with the accommodation directory 23 €; the association covers shipping.

Budget 50 to 70 € a day for lodging, food and stops along the way, more in Dresden, less in the Vogtland. For getting there and back and for splitting stages, the Deutschlandticket at 63 € a month is worth it (as of October 2026).

Getting Here

To the start. You can reach Bautzen by regional train from Dresden Hauptbahnhof in about 45 minutes; Dresden has long-distance trains from Berlin, Leipzig and Prague. From Bautzen station it's about a 15-minute walk through the old town down to the Hammermühle on the Spree.

From the finish. Hof Hauptbahnhof has regional trains to Nuremberg, Leipzig, Dresden and Regensburg. Dresden, Freiberg, Flöha, Chemnitz, Stollberg, Zwickau and Oelsnitz/Vogtland are all on rail lines, so you can get on and off at almost every stage town.

• Rail: bahn.de — connections to Bautzen and from Hof, Deutschlandticket
• Info: saechsischer-jakobsweg.de — pilgrim passport, pilgrim guide, accommodation directory, stamp locations