Märstetten

Right now in Märstetten (as of October 2026)

• From 1 November the hostel is by phone call only: The pilgrim hostel is staffed from April to October. In winter it is officially closed, but you can still arrange a night by calling the phone number on the front door. Best to call ahead: +41 77 512 58 31.

Märstetten in Ninja numbers

• 14.1 kilometres past Konstanz lies Märstetten. For a first day that is just right, for the legs and for the head.
• 1155 is the year Märstetten is first mentioned, in a document that also mentions the church.
• 6,508 overnight stays were counted by the pilgrim hostel between 2003 and June 2023. That is a good 300 pilgrims a year, so on average almost one on every day of the season.
• CHF 25 (approx. €27) is the price of a bed in the hostel (as of October 2026).

Arriving: the first evening after Konstanz

From Kreuzlingen the path climbs via Schwaderloh to a good 550 metres, runs on to Ellighausen and Lippoldswilen and arrives at the hamlet of Ruberbaum. The last stretch leads down through a stream gorge into the village. Märstetten lies at the foot of the Ottenberg, between vineyards and the Thur valley, with half-timbered houses around two old village squares. The townscape is listed in the Federal Inventory ISOS.

Important for orientation: the church, hostel and shop are in the village centre, the station about a kilometre further south. Some stage descriptions end at the station. If you are sleeping here, stay up in the village.

In brief: a church on the old pilgrim route

For centuries Märstetten was a farming village with fruit, wine and cattle. In 1155 the farmstead and church appear in a document, and later they belonged to the Konstanz cathedral chapter. The Hohes Haus in the middle of the village tells that story: in 1613 the Konstanz canon Salomon Buchhorner had it built as a tithe house. In 1529 the village turned Protestant. From 1594 to 1795 Catholics were again allowed to use the church for Mass.

For pilgrims the church matters most. It is dedicated to St James, and the inventories of art monuments describe it as "an dem ehemaligen Pilgerweg Konstanz–Einsiedeln gelegen" (situated on the former pilgrim route Konstanz–Einsiedeln). So here you are not just walking a waymarked hiking trail but an old pilgrim route.

The church of St James: what to see

Märstetten is small, and everything worth seeing lies close together in the village centre.

• Reformed church St. Jakob: A tower choir from the 13th or 14th century with a rib vault, extended to the west between 1487 and 1489. On the chancel arch you can see a late Gothic Last Judgement that came to light again under the plaster in 1975. There is also a baptismal font from 1590, a pulpit from 1790 and, on the tower, a sundial painted in 1808. In the cemetery stands a bell from 1683 from a Konstanz foundry. The church matters to you for two reasons: it is dedicated to St James, and the pilgrim stamp is kept here. We did not find opening hours.
• Hohes Haus, Trotte and Kehlhof: The Hohes Haus of 1613 is the tithe house of the Konstanz cathedral chapter. Opposite stands the Trotte (wine press house) with painted corner pillars, next to it the Alter Kehlhof with the year 1488. Together they show who owned the village and where the dues went: to Konstanz, where you set off this morning. The houses are not open to the public inside, but quickly seen from outside.

Eating and drinking

There is not much choice, and at weekends it gets thin. The Volg on Bahnhofstrasse is open on weekdays from 6:00 to 21:00 and on Saturdays from 7:00 to 19:30. The bakery Sonne Beck opens at 6:00 on weekdays and on Sundays from 8:00 to 11:00 and has a small breakfast offer. The Café Kanapee on Bahnhofstrasse is open only Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 18:00 (as of October 2026).

The most reliable option is the hostel kitchen: shop at the Volg, cook up the hill.

Honestly

• The station is a kilometre from the village. If you arrive or leave by train, you walk that extra kilometre.
• Saturday evening and Sunday look bleak. Café closed, Volg probably closed on Sundays. Shop in good time on Saturday.
• Without a sleeping bag, nothing works in the hostel. Wool blankets are provided, a loan sleeping bag only in exceptional cases.
• From November it is a hostel on call. If you simply turn up at the door in winter, you have to phone first.

Where pilgrims sleep

The Pilgerherberge Märstetten at Hubstrasse 2 is in the middle of the village centre. It is a small, old apartment with ten beds in two rooms and a fully equipped kitchen. A bed costs CHF 25 (approx. €27), children up to 16 pay CHF 12 (as of October 2026). There is no breakfast, and you need your own sleeping bag. The house has been run since 2003 by a team of volunteers, without its own association and since 2012 without subsidies. By its own account it was the first hostel of its kind on the Way of St James through Switzerland. From April to October someone on call welcomes you from 17:00, the name hangs on the front door. You do not have to reserve, but it is highly recommended.

There are also a few private rooms on farms around the village, for example at Brenners Erlebnishof from CHF 55 per person (approx. €59). There is no other pilgrim hostel in Märstetten.

Ninja tips

• Stamp even without an overnight stay: The pilgrim stamp is in the church of St James, in the cupboard under the stairs.
• Breakfast at the baker: The hostel has none, the Sonne Beck opens at 6:00 on weekdays.
• Stay in the village: The hostel is in the centre, not at the station. Do not go down to the station first.
• Season opening with a service: Every spring the hostel team opens the season with a service in the church of St James, in recent years at the end of March.
• Fill up water in Affeltrangen: On the way to Tobel and on to Fischingen there are long stretches without a fountain. One stands at the farm in Affeltrangen, the next only in Oberwangen.

Practical tips for pilgrims

• Train: Märstetten station is on the Winterthur–Weinfelden–Romanshorn line, with the S24 and the S30.
• Weinfelden: The small town lies about three kilometres off the route and is one station away by train, in case you need something that the village does not have.
• Sunday: Bakery from 8:00 to 11:00, otherwise little. Plan your shopping for Saturday.

Onward: across the Thur to Tobel

From Märstetten it is 12.5 kilometres to Tobel, an easy stage on asphalt and field tracks. Just past the village you cross the railway line and the Thur and reach Amlikon. Then you go through the Lättebach valley via Hünikon and Maltbach up to Kaltenbrunnen. There stands a small chapel of St James, and at around 544 metres it is the highest point of the day. If you like, take the variant via Lommis with its church of St James.

What awaits you tomorrow

In Tobel stands a Baroque building that has lived more lives than most monasteries: first a Hospitaller commandery, then for 162 years a prison, today a cultural venue. The Hospitallers once cared for weakened pilgrims here on the way to Einsiedeln. In Tobel the Thurgauer Klosterweg also ends, so you may get company.

Deep dive: A village that belonged to Konstanz

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Märstetten. About three minutes' reading.

A farmstead, a church, a cathedral chapter

In the year 1155 Märstetten appears for the first time in a document, and even then it speaks of a farmstead and a church. The church probably stands where the castle of the lords of Märstetten once stood, on the hill above the village. In the thirteenth century the farmstead and church passed to the cathedral chapter of Konstanz. So the village you reach on your first evening belonged to exactly the city you left in the morning.

The canon's house

You can see how close this bond was at the Hohes Haus. In 1613 the Konstanz canon Salomon Buchhorner had it built as a tithe house. Here was collected what the farmers had to hand over, and a few years later a courtroom with panelled walls was added. Opposite stands the Trotte, where the grapes were pressed. Until the nineteenth century Märstetten lived mainly from fruit, wine and cattle. The railway line only came in 1855, and it stayed down in the valley, a kilometre from the village.

A church for two denominations

In 1529 the Reformation took hold in Märstetten. But the story stayed tangled: from 1594 to 1795 Catholic Mass could be celebrated in the church again, alternating with the Reformed service. Two denominations shared one room, for two centuries. The Last Judgement above the chancel arch that you see today lay under the plaster for a long time. Only during the restoration in 1975 did it come to light again.

James on the way to Einsiedeln

The church is dedicated to St James, and it lies on the old pilgrim route from Konstanz to Einsiedeln. Anyone who wanted to go from Lake Constance to Einsiedeln came past here.

The apartment for pilgrims

In 2003 a few people from the village got together and set up a hostel in an old rented apartment. They did not found an association, they simply did it. Since then volunteers have been ready every evening of the season, handing over keys and welcoming pilgrims, more than six and a half thousand times in the first twenty years. Most guests come from Germany and walk as far as Einsiedeln. Few walk to Santiago. For all of them Märstetten is the first evening.