Partner
Fränkische St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft e.V.
The Franconian St James association from Würzburg, founded in 1988: it runs nine Ways of St James from the Czech border to the Danube, advises pilgrims, issues pilgrim passports and publishes the magazine “unterwegs”.
The Caminos on the map
Caminos of this partner
Jakobsweg Nürnberg–UlmThe Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm runs 219.9 kilometers from the church of St. Jakob in Nuremberg to Ulm Minster on the Danube, by way of Schwabach, Abenberg, Gunzenhausen, the Hahnenkamm ridge, Oettingen, Nördlingen, the Christgarten charterhouse, the Härtsfeld plateau near Neresheim and Giengen an der Brenz. It was worked out between 1995 and 1999 from the accounts of two late-medieval St. James pilgrims, along an old imperial highway. Ten stages, 2,565 meters of climbing, a high point of 639 meters on the Härtsfeld, and right in the middle a good 37 kilometers through a meteorite crater. In Ulm, the Oberschwäbischer Jakobsweg takes over toward Lake Constance.Explore this Camino- Oberfränkischer JakobswegThe Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg runs 181.1 kilometers from Hof an der Saale to the church of St. Jakob in Nuremberg, by way of Helmbrechts, the pilgrimage basilica of Marienweiher, Marktschorgast, Bayreuth, Creußen, Pegnitz, Betzenstein, Gräfenberg and Kalchreuth. It roughly follows the old imperial highway, the Via Imperii, is waymarked with the European scallop shell and was inaugurated on St. James's Day 2009. Nine stages, 2,260 meters of climbing, and a high point of 694 meters in the Franconian Forest south of Helmbrechts. The route is young; the statues of St. James along it are not.Explore this Camino
- Jakobsweg Vacha–Fulda–WürzburgA route that begins at a bridge that led nowhere for four decades: This Way of St. James starts at the Bridge of Unity in Vacha and winds its way through three federal states in 9 stages and about 217 kilometers — past the Cold War outpost Point Alpha to the tomb of St. Boniface in Fulda, over the Kreuzberg, the Holy Mountain of the Franks, down to the vineyards, and on to St. Kilian’s Cathedral in Würzburg. And the starting point says it all: Hermann Künig von Vach, who wrote the first printed German pilgrim’s guide to Santiago in 1495, was a native of Vacha.Explore this Camino
- Fränkisch-Schwäbischer JakobswegThe Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg takes you 272.6 kilometers from Würzburg through Rothenburg ob der Tauber and the Ostalb region to Ulm — passing Riemenschneider’s Holy Blood Altar, Herlin’s “Miracle of the Gallows” depicted on five panels, and a dozen churches featuring stained-glass windows by Sieger Köder. Inaugurated in 1999 by two pastors—one Catholic and one Protestant—it ends beneath the world’s tallest church tower.Explore this Camino
- Oberpfälzer JakobswegThe Oberpfälzer Jakobsweg takes you 183.8 kilometres from the Tillyschanz border crossing through the Upper Palatinate Forest and the Naab, Vils and Lauterach valleys, skirting south of Nuremberg, to Stein — as the eastern part of the Franconian Way of St. James inaugurated in 1995, which comes from Prague and which Pastor Paul Geißendörfer rediscovered in 1992 not from charters but from St. James churches standing in a row from the 12th to the 18th century. No mountain, 2,475 metres of ascent, not a single hostel — and at the end you stand at the pilgrim „Anton“ in Stein, where the Mittelfränkischer Jakobsweg takes over.Explore this Camino
- Ostbayerischer JakobswegFrom the Bohemian border through Regensburg and Eichstätt to Neresheim: 312.4 kilometers and 6,337 meters of elevation gain through the Bavarian Forest, along the Danube, and across the Franconian Jura. The route in our network with the greatest elevation gain on the German Way of St. James—and the only one that passes through the World Heritage Site of Regensburg.Explore this Camino
- Mittelfränkischer JakobswegThe Middle Franconian Way of St. James runs 99.3 kilometers from the Jakobskirche in Nuremberg to the Jakobskirche in Rothenburg ob der Tauber — four stages with only 1,039 meters of ascent. At the end you literally walk underneath the destination church: Rothenburg's west choir was built over the street in 1453–1471.Explore this Camino
- Jakobsweg Nürnberg–EichstättFrom the Teutonic Order church of St. Jakob in Nuremberg, this Way of St. James runs 88.8 kilometers through the Lorenzer Reichswald, past the Rothsee and across the Jura plateau of the Frankenalb to Eichstätt Cathedral — five stages, 935 meters of ascent, highest point 560 meters. Waiting at the finish is a bishop who himself spent four years in the Holy Land, and an altar whose Jerusalem contains houses from Nuremberg.Explore this Camino
- Steigerwälder JakobswegThe Steigerwald Way of St. James runs 82.0 kilometers from the Jakobskirche in Bamberg straight through the Steigerwald to Uffenheim, where it flows into the Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg toward Rothenburg and Ulm — four stages, 941 meters of ascent, a castle, a wine paradise and a hermitage in which no hermit ever lived. It is the forest shortcut from Bamberg to the south: empty, well marked, and between Bamberg and Markt Bibart 57 kilometers without a railway station.Explore this Camino
Who stands behind the route
The Fränkische St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Würzburg e.V. was founded in 1988 – in the years when Germany's first St James associations appeared and Santiago was still an insider tip here. Since then it has helped weave a network of Ways of St James through Franconia, the Upper Palatinate and Eastern Bavaria: from old pilgrim accounts, from existing hiking trails, and hand in hand with hiking clubs, districts, churches and partners across the border.
The Eastern Bavarian Way of St James is the finest example: on 16 July 2004 the association, the Bavarian Forest Club and the Czech Tourist Club inaugurated it together – on a pass that nobody was allowed to cross from 1948 to 1990. Today the association is also a member of the network of Bavarian Ways of St James and keeps up its links with the Czech Republic, for instance through the German-Czech St James days.
The association's routes
Nine routes, one shared aim: to bring pilgrims from Thuringia, Bohemia and Upper Franconia via Nuremberg and Würzburg to the Danube at Ulm, where the way continues towards Lake Constance and Switzerland.
- Ostbayerischer Jakobsweg – 312.4 km, Všeruby (Neumarker Pass) → Neresheim
- Oberpfälzer Jakobsweg – 183.8 km, Eslarn (Tillyschanz) → Stein (Nuremberg)
- Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg – 181.1 km, Hof → Nuremberg
- Jakobsweg Vacha–Fulda–Würzburg – approx. 217 km, Vacha → Würzburg
- Steigerwälder Jakobsweg – 82.0 km, Bamberg → Uffenheim
- Mittelfränkischer Jakobsweg – 99.3 km, Nuremberg → Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Eichstätt – 88.8 km, Nuremberg → Eichstätt
- Jakobsweg Nürnberg–Ulm – 219.9 km, Nuremberg → Ulm
- Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Jakobsweg – 272.6 km, Würzburg → Ulm
What the association does for pilgrims
The association issues the pilgrim passport – via its online shop and a network of volunteer issuing points – and every pilgrim passport comes with the current issue of the association's magazine “unterwegs”. Volunteer pilgrim advisers help you plan, a pilgrim database lists hostels and contact points along the routes, and seminars prepare beginners for their first pilgrimage.
The routes are mostly waymarked and maintained together with the regional hiking clubs, which take the white or yellow shell on a blue background into their trail networks. A good example is the Steigerwald Way of St James: the association combined two long-distance trails of the Steigerwaldklub into a pilgrim link heading south from Bamberg and laid the shell over them. On top of that come pilgrim services, pilgrim blessings and meetings of the regional groups.
Contact and getting involved
Website: jakobus-franken.de with pilgrim information, pilgrim advice, FAQ and online shop · Seat: Würzburg. Anyone who wants to support pilgrimage in Franconia can become a member – as a pilgrim adviser, issuing pilgrim passports or in the association's working groups.