Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: church of St. Jakob in Nuremberg / Ulm Minster on the Danube
• Length: 219.9 km; the first 12 km or so out of Nuremberg share the same line as the Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Eichstätt
• Duration: 10 stages, avg. 22 km; if you want shorter days, plan on 11 to 12
• Elevation: ↗ 2,565 m / ↘ 2,398 m
• Highest point: 639 m at km 158.3 on the Härtsfeld between Auernheim and Fleinheim; lowest point 312 m in Nuremberg
• Landscape: the forests and rolling hills of Middle Franconia, the Jura ridge of the Hahnenkamm, the plain of the Ries, and finally the Härtsfeld, the Brenz valley and the Lone valley on the eastern Swabian Jura
• Waymarking: scallop-shell signs whose design changes between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg; bring a GPS track
• Traces of St. James: St. Jakob in Nuremberg, a church of the Teutonic Order since 1209; St. Jakobus in Unterreichenbach near Schwabach, rebuilt in Gothic style in 1496; St. Jakob in Oettingen with a choir from 1326 and a statue of St. James in front of the portal
• Accommodation: inns, guesthouses, hotels and youth hostels; there are no documented traditional pilgrim hostels along this route
• Connecting routes: Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg in Nuremberg, Augsburg Way of St. James from Oettingen, Ostbayerischer Jakobsweg near Christgarten, Neresheim – Neckartailfingen from Neresheim, Oberschwäbischer Jakobsweg from Ulm
• Best time: May to October; in spring the Ries is green, in September the trails and inns are empty
• Pilgrim passport: at the St. Jakob pilgrim center in Nuremberg; stamps along the way in churches and at the finish in Ulm Minster

Overview

The Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm is a route that was looked up in the archives. Between 1995 and 1999, as Wikipedia sums it up, it was „nach zwei Berichten spätmittelalterlicher Jakobspilger in enger Anlehnung an den Verlauf einer Reichsstraße erarbeitet“ (developed from two accounts by late-medieval St. James pilgrims, closely following the course of an imperial highway) – and it has since been regarded as a model project for a historically accurate route in line with Council of Europe guidelines. In the 15th century, Nuremberg was a city of long-distance travelers: the physician Hieronymus Münzer set out from here in 1494 on a journey that took him all the way to Santiago, and the patrician Rieter family, whose villages lie along the first day's walk, sent its sons to Jerusalem.

In between lie 219.9 kilometers that take you through three very different lands: first the rolling hills of Middle Franconia with half-timbered houses and margrave churches, then the Nördlinger Ries, a crater punched into the Jura by an asteroid some 14.6 million years ago, and finally the eastern Swabian Jura with its caves, its abbey and the Danube valley. And then the finish: you walk 219.9 kilometers toward a tower that, until October 30, 2025, was the tallest church spire in the world. Since then the Sagrada Família in Barcelona has been taller – but Ulm Minster, at 161.53 meters, remains the tallest church spire in Germany, and for pilgrims coming from Franconia it's the gateway to Lake Constance.

Other Names

We list it as the Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm, which is also what most route directories call it. Because it was planned as one section of a longer route, local descriptions also refer to it as the Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Bodensee or Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm–Konstanz. In English it's called the Way of St. James Nuremberg–Ulm. Don't confuse it with the Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg: that one comes from Würzburg and also ends on Ulm's Münsterplatz, but it's a separate route.

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

Ideal if you're looking for a Camino with a train station at the start and at the finish, and small towns in between where every day ends at a church that's worth it. Ideal if you're drawn to history across the ages: Roman forts on the Limes, a monastery founded in 752, a free imperial city with an intact wall, Balthasar Neumann's last great church, Ice Age art, and a Gothic tower that took 513 years to build. And ideal as your first longer pilgrimage: no stage is technically difficult.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you're expecting the pilgrim community you'd find in Spain: here you'll often walk alone for days, and in the evening you'll be sitting in a village inn, not a dormitory. Not for you if you're counting on hostel prices – you'll be paying guesthouse rates, and you should book beds in Wernfels, Heidenheim and Nerenstetten ahead of time. And not for you if long, shadeless farm tracks wear you down: in the Ries in July, the corn is the only cover.

Route & Landscape

Nuremberg to Heidenheim (km 0–84.6): From St. Jakob you head south out of the city, sharing the first 12 kilometers or so with the route to Eichstätt, then via Kornburg (km 13.8), with the Rieter family's moated castle, to Schwabach (km 24.2). West of town the hill country begins: via Kammerstein (km 32.0) and Abenberg (km 39.0) to Wernfels (km 48.5) and up to Kalbensteinberg (km 53.5). Via Brombach (km 61.7) you skirt the edge of the Franconian Lake District and reach Gunzenhausen (km 67.9) on the Altmühl. Then things turn Jurassic: past the Roman fort of Gnotzheim (km 77.7) and up onto the Hahnenkamm to Heidenheim (km 84.6).

Heidenheim to Ulm (km 84.6–219.9): Via Hohentrüdingen (km 89.6) you descend into the Ries, and via Hainsfarth to Oettingen (km 102.6). The crater plain takes you via Maihingen (km 114.4) and Wallerstein (km 121.4) to Nördlingen (km 128.1); Reimlingen stays just under a kilometer to the east. On the southern rim of the crater, the Kartäusertal valley leads to Christgarten (km 139.7), then you climb onto the Härtsfeld: past Neresheim (km 152.3), which itself lies a good half kilometer off the route, via Auernheim and the high point at km 158.3, and down into the Brenz valley to Giengen (km 173.4). Via Hürben and Stetten ob Lontal (km 184.8) you follow the Lone valley, then via Nerenstetten (km 195.1), Albeck (km 203.1) and Oberelchingen (km 209.0) with its abbey church down to the Danube and Ulm (km 219.9).

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

We show the route in 10 stages of between 16 and 26 kilometers; distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 219.9 km. If you want shorter days, add overnight stops in Abenberg, Wallerstein or Albeck.

1. Nuremberg → Schwabach (24.2 km) — out of the city via Kornburg to the town of the goldbeaters.
2. Schwabach → Wernfels (24.3 km) — past St. Jakobus in Unterreichenbach, via Kammerstein and Abenberg into the Rezat valley; Wernfels is small, so book your bed.
3. Wernfels → Gunzenhausen (19.4 km) — up to the Rieter church in Kalbensteinberg, then via Brombach and Frickenfelden to the Altmühl.
4. Gunzenhausen → Heidenheim (16.7 km) — the shortest stage, via Gnotzheim up onto the Hahnenkamm to the minster of St. Wunibald.
5. Heidenheim → Oettingen (18.0 km) — via Hohentrüdingen at 587 meters, then the descent into the Ries to the old residence town.
6. Oettingen → Nördlingen (25.5 km) — flat across the crater via Maihingen and Wallerstein; lots of fields, little shade.
7. Nördlingen → Neresheim (24.2 km) — through the Kartäusertal to Christgarten and up onto the Härtsfeld to the abbey.
8. Neresheim → Giengen an der Brenz (21.1 km) — via Auernheim and the high point at 639 meters, down into the Brenz valley.
9. Giengen an der Brenz → Nerenstetten (21.7 km) — via Hürben and through the Lone valley with its Ice Age caves up onto the Jura plateau.
10. Nerenstetten → Ulm (24.8 km) — via Albeck and Oberelchingen Abbey down to the Danube and the minster.

The surface is mostly field, forest and farm tracks, plus asphalt on the outskirts of Nuremberg, Schwabach and Ulm. The steep bits are short: up onto the Hahnenkamm, out of the Ries onto the Härtsfeld, and down to Oberelchingen. What's tiring is rather the length of the days in the Ries and the mud on the Jura's forest trails after rain.

The Daniel Is Built from Crater Rock—and Apollo 14 Trained Next Door for the Moon

Some 14.6 million years ago, an asteroid about one and a half kilometers across slammed into the ground between the Franconian and Swabian Jura. It left behind a crater almost 25 kilometers wide, the Nördlinger Ries – and you walk straight through it: from Oettingen on the northeastern rim to Christgarten on the southern rim, about 37 kilometers. It wasn't until 1960 that the American geologists Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao identified coesite and stishovite, high-pressure forms of quartz that only form in an impact. Then, from August 10 to 15, 1970, the crew of Apollo 14 clambered through the quarries of the Ries to learn how to recognize moon rock.

The rock that the impact melted and tossed together is called suevite – and the people of Nördlingen built their main church out of it. St. Georg went up between 1427 and 1505; the tower that everyone simply calls the Daniel was finished in 1490 and stands 89.9 meters tall. The suevite contains tiny diamonds. So when you reach the gallery at 70 meters after 350 steps, you're standing on a tower made of asteroid debris, looking out over the crater rim you crossed that morning. From 10 p.m. until midnight, the tower watchman calls out „So G'sell so!“ (roughly “All's well, fellow!”) every half hour – according to legend because these words foiled an attack on the town in 1440.

You'll see your first crater rock even earlier: the keep of Hohentrüdingen, now a church tower, is partly built of Ries breccia. In practical terms: plan half a day in Nördlingen – for the tower, the 2.6 kilometers of town wall from 1327, and the Ries Crater Museum. Since 2022, the Ries has been a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Highlights Along the Way

• St. Jakob, Nuremberg (km 0) — a church of the Teutonic Order since 1209, with a pilgrim center, pilgrim passports and your first stamp.
• Schwabach (km 24.2) — town church with a high altar from Michael Wolgemut's workshop dating from 1508; in the Goldener Stern inn, the Schwabach Articles, a precursor of the Augsburg Confession, were drawn up in October 1529.
• Abenberg (km 39.0) — castle with a bobbin-lace museum; tomb of Blessed Stilla, who died around 1140 and was beatified in 1927.
• Kalbensteinberg (km 53.5) — the Rieter church of St. Marien und Christophorus, built from 1464 to 1488 and refurnished by the Rieter family around 1610.
• Gunzenhausen (km 67.9) — first mentioned in 823; the town church of St. Maria, built 1448 to 1496, stands on a Roman fort on the Limes, a World Heritage Site since 2005.
• Heidenheim (km 84.6) — in 752 the Anglo-Saxon monk Wunibald founded a monastery here; after his death in 761 his sister Walburga ran it as a double monastery; the Romanesque minster was consecrated between 1182 and 1188.
• Oettingen (km 102.6) — residence of two princely lines from 1522 to 1731, with the two sides of the street divided by denomination; on Schlossplatz stands St. Jakob with its choir from 1326 and the statue of St. James where the Augsburg Way of St. James begins.
• Nördlingen (km 128.1) — a town wall you can walk all the way around, St. Georg with the Daniel, and the Heilig-Geist-Spital hospital from 1233.
• Christgarten (km 139.7) — a charterhouse in the Kartäusertal founded in 1383 by the Counts of Oettingen and dissolved in 1649; the choir of the monastery church is now the village church.
• Neresheim Abbey (km 152.3) — founded in 1095, abbey church built from 1750 to 1792 to plans by Balthasar Neumann; Benedictine again since 1920.
• Giengen an der Brenz (km 173.4) — home of Margarete Steiff, who founded her toy company in 1880; in Hürben, the 587-meter-long Charlottenhöhle cave.
• Lone valley near Stetten (km 184.8) — in the Vogelherd Cave near Niederstotzingen, Gustav Riek found ivory figurines some 40,000 years old in 1931, among them a wild horse just 4.8 centimeters long; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017.
• Oberelchingen Abbey (km 209.0) — on October 14, 1805, the Battle of Elchingen raged outside its walls, and that evening Napoleon took up quarters in the abbey.
• Ulm Minster (km 219.9) — foundation stone laid on June 30, 1377, tower completed on May 31, 1890, 161.53 meters; pilgrim stamp inside the minster.

Rieter Country: A Nuremberg Family of Travelers on Day One

Two places at the start of the route belong together, even though 40 kilometers lie between them. In 1447 the Nuremberg patrician Peter Rieter bought Kornburg; the family turned the castle into a moated palace and, after its destruction in 1632, had the church of St. Nikolaus rebuilt as a margrave church. In Kalbensteinberg stands their church, still known today as the Rieterkirche. The Rieters were long-distance travelers: in 1479 Sebald Rieter sailed with the future mayor Hans Tucher via Rome and Cyprus to the Holy Land, and Joachim Rieter traveled through France, Spain and Italy and was knighted in Jerusalem in 1608. To be honest: there's no record of a Santiago pilgrim in this family – Jerusalem was their goal, not Compostela.

And yet the Rieters explain why this route runs right here. Nuremberg merchants and pilgrims of the 15th century traveled the imperial highways, and the route of 1995 to 1999 follows one such highway heading southwest. When the last Rieter died in 1753, Kornburg and Kalbensteinberg passed, by the will of the family foundation, to the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Nuremberg.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Nuremberg is a hub. From the northeast, the Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg comes in from Hof via Bayreuth to St. Jakob, 181.1 kilometers; before Kalchreuth, the Jakobsweg Erfurt–Nürnberg joins it. At St. Jakob you then have a choice of three routes:

• Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm — this route, through the Ries to the Danube
• Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Eichstätt — into the Altmühl valley to the bishop's city; both routes share the first 12 kilometers or so
• Mittelfränkischer Jakobsweg — west via Heilsbronn to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Two more routes join along the way. Between Wallerstein and Nördlingen you walk a stretch on the same line as the Via Romea Germanica, the road to Rome from Stade heading south through the Ries. And near Christgarten, the Ostbayerischer Jakobsweg comes in from the Bavarian Forest via Donauwörth; the two run together as far as Neresheim.

Continue the pilgrimage?

In Ulm the route ends at the minster – and from Münsterplatz it carries on. The Oberschwäbischer Jakobsweg runs 167.6 kilometers via Biberach, Steinhausen, Weingarten and Ravensburg to Meersburg, then by ferry across Lake Constance to Konstanz, where the Via Jacobi takes over through Switzerland toward Geneva. Münsterplatz is also where the Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg from Würzburg ends.

Two branches split off along the way. In Oettingen, the Augsburg Way of St. James begins at the statue of St. James and heads via Augsburg into the Allgäu. And in Neresheim, Neresheim – Neckartailfingen branches off to the west, across the Swabian Jura to the Neckar.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. As on every Camino, you'll need a pilgrim passport (credencial) to stay in pilgrim accommodation and, at the end, to receive your Compostela in Santiago. It's best to order it online in advance so it arrives in time for the start of your trip; the pilgrim center at St. Jakob in Nuremberg also issues pilgrim passports. You can get stamps at parish offices and tourist information centers, and at the finish in the minster. The easiest way to plan the route is directly in the Camino Ninja App, where you can put together your stages and plan suitable accommodation right along with them.

Where to stay. There are no documented traditional pilgrim hostels with dormitories along this route. You'll sleep in inns, guesthouses, vacation apartments and hotels, and in Nuremberg also in the youth hostel at the Imperial Castle, with 353 beds. In Wernfels, Heidenheim, Nerenstetten and Christgarten, options are thin – book there a day or two ahead. Neresheim Abbey only takes men aged 18 and over as enclosure guests; otherwise you'll stay at the inn there.

Trails and seasons. The waymarking changes its look between Franconia, the Ries and Württemberg; in villages, the track in the app helps. The best time is May to October. In high summer the Ries plain is hot, and in late fall many country inns have rest days.

What the journey will cost you

The credencial costs a few euros, and stamps are free. Inns and guesthouses in the stage towns run roughly €45 to €75 for a single room with breakfast, and usually less per person in a double; more in Nuremberg, Nördlingen and Ulm (as of October 2026).

Budget €60 to €90 a day for your room, dinner at the inn and supplies from the supermarket. Two people sharing a double will spend more like €50 to €70 each. The Deutschlandticket, at €63 a month, covers travel to and from the route on regional transport, as well as any bail-outs and stage skips by regional train (as of October 2026).

Getting Here

To the start. Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof has ICE high-speed connections from every direction, and Nuremberg Airport is linked by subway. From St. Jakob it's about a ten-minute walk to the main station.

Along the way and from the finish. Schwabach is connected to Nuremberg by S-Bahn, and Gunzenhausen, Nördlingen and Giengen an der Brenz have train stations; Oettingen has none, but a regional bus runs from Nördlingen. You can reach Neresheim by bus. Ulm Hauptbahnhof is on the Stuttgart–Munich ICE line, a few minutes from the minster.

• Rail: bahn.de — connections to Nuremberg and from Ulm
• Deutschlandticket: bahn.de/deutschland-ticket — regional transport throughout Germany