Via Romea Germanica (Austria)

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Scharnitz on the border with Bavaria / Brenner – Brennero on the border with Italy
• Length: 82.1 km
• Duration: 4 stages, averaging just over 20 km; if you are coming from Mittenwald, walk the first stage straight through to Seefeld
• Elevation: ↗ 1,760 m / ↘ 1,337 m
• Lowest / highest point: 572 m at km 37.5 by the Inn before Innsbruck / 1,376 m at km 81.7 on the Brenner
• Landscape: Isar valley and the edge of the Karwendel, the Seefeld plateau, the descent into the Inn valley beneath the Martinswand, the Innsbruck Mittelgebirge terraces, the Wipptal with mountain villages high above the Sill and the motorway
• Operator: European Association Via Romea Germanica with its support associations in Germany, Austria and Italy; in Tyrol, the Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol at Innsbruck Cathedral is the point of contact
• Waymarking: a shepherd's crook with the lettering "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" on a blue background, as stickers at key points, partly integrated into the Tyrolean signposts
• Pilgrim passport: Via Romea pilgrim passport for 7 € (as of September 2026); in Innsbruck also available from the Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol
• Traces of St. James: Innsbruck Cathedral of St. James (Dom St. Jakob), the St. James chapel in Nößlach, a shared route with the Jakobsweg Brenner
• Connecting routes: to the north the Via Romea Germanica (Germany), to the south the Via Romea Germanica (Italy)
• Best time: June to October; snow can lie on the Seefeld plateau and at the Brenner well into spring

Overview

This is not a Way of St. James to Santiago but a road to Rome. It follows the travel account of Abbot Albert von Stade, who went to Rome in 1236 and later recorded his route in the Annales Stadenses as a dialogue between two monks. One of them, Firri, asks the other: "Romam ire volo, expedias me de itinere." (I want to go to Rome, set me on my way.) On his way home Albert came through Sterzing, Matrei and Innsbruck – right through this valley. Since 2020 the Via Romea Germanica has been a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe; the Tyrolean part is its shortest national section.

Short does not mean easy here. In four days you climb out of the Isar valley onto the Seefeld plateau, drop steeply into the Inn valley, cross the provincial capital and then climb up through the Wipptal to the Brenner, again and again with counter-climbs. In return, over 82 kilometers you get the entire Alpine crossing in miniature: fortress, pilgrimage church, city, mountain villages and, at the end, the watershed beyond which the rivers flow to the Adriatic.

Other Names

The association calls the route Via Romea Germanica, meaning "German road to Rome"; in Tyrol the tourist boards often write simply Via Romea or Romweg – Via Romea, sometimes with the addition "European Cultural Route". Named after the abbot, the German support association is called Romweg – Abt Albert von Stade. The itinerary itself is known as the Stade Itinerary (Stader Itinerar). In Italian the route is also called Via Romea Germanica, and at the pass the Brenner becomes the Brennero.

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

Ideal if you have a long weekend or four days and want to cross the Alps on foot once, without high-mountain experience. Ideal as an introduction, too: the railway accompanies you almost everywhere, you can break off any stage and sleep in a real bed at night. And ideal for St. James pilgrims who want to keep filling their credencial – from Innsbruck the route is the same as the Jakobsweg Brenner, just in the opposite direction.

To be honest, though, it is not for you if you are looking for silence: in the Wipptal the Brenner motorway and the railway can be heard almost constantly, and a Tyrolean pilgrim report explicitly names the noise of the transit route as the one drawback. Not for you either if you expect cheap pilgrim hostels – Tyrol is holiday country, and beds cost holiday prices. And not for you if you only want level days: the descent from the plateau to Zirl is hard on the knees, and according to the same report the Wipptal goes up and down like a roller coaster.

Route & Landscape

Plateau and Inn valley (km 0–39): In Scharnitz stand the remains of the walls of the Porta Claudia, the fortress with which Claudia de' Medici closed off the valley against the Swedes in 1632. The route follows the young Isar along the edge of the Karwendel via Gießenbach up to Seefeld in Tirol (km 13.6) on the plateau. Via Reith bei Seefeld (km 17.6) and Leithen with its Magnus chapel it descends steeply through the Zirler Wald forest to Zirl (km 23.5). Beneath the Martinswand you walk through the Inn valley to Kranebitten (km 33.1) and on to Innsbruck (km 39.2), where the map shows the town center a good half kilometer off the route.

Wipptal (km 39–82.1): Out of the city the route climbs via Amras (km 41.8) onto the Mittelgebirge terraces and to Patsch (km 47.5), with a view of the Europabrücke. Via Mühltal and Ellbögen (km 54.9) you walk along the eastern side of the valley to Matrei am Brenner (km 61.1). Then it goes via St. Kathrein and Mauern high above Steinach, via Siegreith to Stafflach (km 71.7) and Nößlach (km 74.1), down to Gries am Brenner (km 76.7) and through the narrows of Lueg, past the Brennersee lake, to the Brenner (km 82.0).

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

The Tyrolean tourist boards divide the section into four stages: Mittenwald–Seefeld, Seefeld–Innsbruck, Innsbruck–Matrei and Matrei–Brenner. We follow this division from Scharnitz; the first kilometers from Mittenwald are on the German side, which is why our first stage is short. Kilometers from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 82.1 km.

1. Scharnitz → Seefeld in Tirol (13.6 km) — From the Porta Claudia along the Isar and via Gießenbach gently up onto the plateau. If you are coming from Mittenwald, tack this stage onto your last German day.
2. Seefeld in Tirol → Innsbruck (25.6 km) — Via Reith and Leithen, then the steep descent through the Zirler Wald to Zirl, beneath the Martinswand through Kranebitten into the city. The longest stage and the hardest on the knees; you can split it in Zirl.
3. Innsbruck → Matrei am Brenner (21.9 km) — Via Amras onto the Mittelgebirge terraces, to Patsch and via Ellbögen along the sunny side of the Wipptal to Matrei. From here on you walk on the route of the Jakobsweg Brenner.
4. Matrei am Brenner → Brenner – Brennero (21.0 km) — Via St. Kathrein, Mauern, Stafflach and Nößlach with its St. James chapel to Gries, through Lueg to the pass. The day with the most counter-climbs.

The surface mixes forest and meadow paths, gravel and a lot of asphalt on minor roads; for the stretch from Matrei, one touring platform counts roughly half as road and asphalt. The Seefeld tourist region rates the section as difficult and reckons on around 26 hours of walking for the four stages from Mittenwald. Nothing is technically exposed, but you have to take mountain weather seriously.

Where the Water Changes Sides: Over the Brenner to the South

At around 1,370 meters the Brenner is one of the lowest crossings of the main Alpine ridge – which is why armies, merchants and pilgrims have always come this way. Around 15 BC Roman troops marched over the pass, under Emperor Septimius Severus the road was improved, and Matrei was listed as the road station Matreium on the Tabula Peutingeriana. Around 1430 most of the long-distance trade between Augsburg and Venice went over the Brenner. In 1867 the Brenner Railway opened, the first railway across the main Alpine ridge, and in 1971 the motorway. Since 1920 the border between Austria and Italy has run here.

The watershed lies at the pass: the Sill flows north to the Inn and via the Danube into the Black Sea, the Eisack south via the Adige to the Adriatic. Goethe, who traveled almost exactly this route in September 1786, noted "Bei Scharnitz kommt man ins Tirol" (at Scharnitz you enter Tyrol), enthused "Bei Zirl fährt man ins Inntal herab. Die Lage ist unbeschreiblich schön" (at Zirl you descend into the Inn valley; the setting is indescribably beautiful), and on the evening of 8 September on the Brenner wrote that he was at the side of the great Brenner, "von dem aus die Wasser sich ringsum ergießen" (from which the waters pour out all around).

In practice this means: don't plan the last day too tightly, because it can be cold and windy at the pass even in summer. The Brennersee shortly before the finish is the only remaining lake at the pass, a small pocket of calm between the tracks and the motorway. And when you arrive in Brenner you are not at the end but on the threshold: from here it is downhill all the way south, to Rome.

St. James on the Road to Rome: Innsbruck, Nößlach and the Shared Route

In Tyrol the roads to Rome and to Santiago don't just cross on the map. The Dom St. Jakob in Innsbruck is dedicated to the apostle; since 1650 the miraculous image Mariahilf by Lucas Cranach the Elder has hung above the high altar, making the church a place of pilgrimage. On the cathedral square sits the Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol, which issues pilgrim passports for Santiago and for the Via Romea.

The loveliest trace lies on the last stage: the small late-Romanesque St. James chapel in Nößlach is said to have been founded by the knight Peter von Trautson, who according to records of Wilten Abbey had made the pilgrimage to Santiago in 1305. The Trautsons lived in the castle above Matrei; according to a Tyrolean pilgrim blog, the late-Gothic winged altar has been documented since 1426. The door stands open, a grille closes off the interior; guided tours can be arranged through the municipality of Gries.

Highlights Along the Way

• Porta Claudia, Scharnitz (km 0) — valley barrier built in 1632 by the ruling princess Claudia de' Medici, bypassed and taken by French troops in 1805; today wall remains up to six meters high.
• Parish Church of St. Oswald, Seefeld (km 13.6) — late-Gothic pilgrimage church built after the Host miracle of 1384, choir consecrated in 1432, south portal with a relief of the miracle.
• Magnus chapel, Leithen (stage 2) — a small chapel above the Inn valley before the descent to Zirl.
• Martinswand, Zirl (stage 2) — a rock face some 600 meters high; in the Kaiser-Max-Grotte, Maximilian I is said to have been stranded in 1484 after a failed chamois hunt.
• Dom St. Jakob, Innsbruck (km 39.2) — Baroque rebuilding from 1717 to 1724 with frescoes by Cosmas Damian Asam and Cranach's Mariahilf, a cathedral since 1964.
• Europabrücke near Patsch (stage 3) — the Brenner motorway crosses the Wipptal 190 meters above the Sill, opened in 1963 and at the time Europe's highest bridge.
• Matrei am Brenner (km 61.1) — market rights since 1251, painted townhouses and inns, rebuilt in the old style after the bombing of March 1945.
• St. Kathrein and St. Ursula in Mauern (km 62.7 and 65.6) — filial churches with Gothic wall paintings on the way above Steinach.
• St. James chapel, Nößlach (km 74.1) — late-Romanesque chapel with a late-Gothic winged altar, founded by a Santiago pilgrim.
• Chapel of St. Christoph and Sigmund, Lueg (km 78.3) — Gothic chapel at the old toll station, plus the remains of Lueg castle.
• Brennersee and Brenner Pass (km 80.4 and 82.0) — the last lake before the watershed, then the border.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Most come on foot from Germany: the Via Romea Germanica (Germany) runs 1,094.8 kilometers from Stade via Augsburg, Oberammergau and Mittenwald to Scharnitz. Others join in Innsbruck because they only want to walk the Alps, or start their road to Rome right here. By train, Scharnitz is easy to reach from Innsbruck and from Munich via Garmisch and Mittenwald.

In Tyrol several routes of the Camino Ninja network meet the Via Romea:

• Way of St James in Austria — runs on the same route between Zirl and Innsbruck, in the opposite direction, westward
• Jakobsweg Brenner — practically the entire Innsbruck–Brenner stretch, only designed to be walked from South Tyrol northward
• Jakobsweg Isar-Inn — shares the Klais–Mittenwald stretch in Bavaria and then heads into the Inn valley to Mötz, not via Scharnitz
• Jakobsweg Tirol–Allgäu — starts in Stams in the Inn valley west of Innsbruck, with no shared route

Continue the pilgrimage?

Yes – southward. At the Brenner the Via Romea flows seamlessly into the Via Romea Germanica (Italy): 1,017.9 kilometers via Sterzing, Brixen, Bolzano, Trento, Padua, Ferrara, Ravenna, the Apennines, Arezzo and Orvieto to St. Peter's Square, from Montefiascone on the route of the Via Francigena. If you want the pilgrim certificate in Rome, you need at least 100 kilometers on foot with stamps in your passport.

If you would rather turn toward Santiago, you have two options: in Innsbruck head west on the Way of St James in Austria, or beyond the Brenner, from Brixen, join the Jakobsweg Südtirol, which runs together with the Romea via Klausen and the Ritten to Bolzano.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. The Via Romea has its own pilgrim passport with room for all the stamps from Stade to Rome, trilingual, for 7 € in the publisher's shop (as of September 2026); in Innsbruck the Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol on the cathedral square also issues it, by post or on Wednesdays during office hours. A St. James credencial works for stamps too, but for the certificate in Rome the Romea passport is the safe choice. With the Camino Ninja App you have the map and track with you offline; the easiest way to plan the route is directly in the app, where you put your stages together and plan suitable accommodation right along with them.

Accommodation. Real pilgrim hostels are rare in Tyrol. You sleep in inns, guesthouses, private rooms and, in Innsbruck, youth hostels; the Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol keeps an accommodation list. Near Matrei is the Bildungshaus St. Michael in Pfons, an educational center that takes in pilgrims and offers cheaper rooms in the old building. In July and August and around events in Seefeld, you had better book ahead.

Weather and water. Between June and October the route is usually free of snow; in spring and late autumn the plateau and the pass can be snowbound. Thunderstorms are frequent on summer afternoons, so start early. You will find water in the villages and at fountains; between Matrei and Gries the villages lie high up and far apart.

What the journey will cost you

To be honest, Tyrol is not a cheap place. In Innsbruck a bed in a dormitory at the Jugendgästehaus Volkshaus costs 29 € without breakfast, at the youth hostel 35.80 to 38.80 € with breakfast; the Bildungshaus St. Michael near Matrei charges from 65 € per person in a double room (as of September 2026). On top of that, almost everywhere there is a local tourist tax of around 2.60 to 4 € per night. A Tyrolean hostel directory lists cheaper private rooms in the Wipptal, but itself warns that the prices are often out of date.

Budget for the pilgrim passport at 7 €, nights in an inn or guesthouse, food from supermarkets and inns, and the occasional train ride. If you stay overnight in the Seefeld region, you get a guest card that serves as a ticket for buses and trains there (as of September 2026).

Getting Here

To the start. Scharnitz lies on the Mittenwald Railway between Innsbruck and Garmisch-Partenkirchen; from Innsbruck you get there via Seefeld in just over half an hour, from Munich you travel via Garmisch and Mittenwald. If you are arriving on foot from the north, you simply cross the border beyond Mittenwald.

From the finish. Brenner station lies right at the pass. Northbound, regional trains run via Gries, Steinach and Matrei to Innsbruck; southbound via Sterzing to Bolzano. If you want to break off a stage in the Wipptal, you will find a railway station in the valley almost everywhere.

• Austrian railways: oebb.at — timetable for the Mittenwald Railway and the Brenner Railway
• Tyrolean stages: seefeld.com — the four Tyrolean stages with a map
• Pilgrim passport in Tyrol: dibk.at — Jakobsgemeinschaft Tirol, pilgrim passport and accommodation list ---