A pilgrim's stamp for Kirchberg

The fact that the Way of St. James leads through Kirchberg is a little-known fact. If you start in Bad Schlema, for example, you can walk the 'Silberberg' Way of St. James via Kirchberg to Hof. The route splits at Filzteich in Schneeberg: one leads via Hundshübel and Rodewisch to Eich. The other was signposted in 2014 by the Kirchberg nature and heritage enthusiasts, Wolfgang Prehl and Heiko Goldberg. It leads via Hoher Forst to Kirchberg and on to Hirschfeld. The signs with the shell on a blue background point the way.

But as a pilgrim, you have to prove that you have actually walked the route. You do this with your pilgrim's pass and the stamps it contains. This was previously missing in the 7-hill town. And so the idea of the Kirchberg pilgrim stamp was born, which was presented at the Old Town Festival and can now be found at St. Margaret's Church.

Anja Roocke from Kirchberg came up with the idea. She has symbolically combined two of her passions on the stamp: two wandering hares, designed by the advertising agency Simone Drese. In addition to pilgrimage, the motif alludes to the bunny school that Albert Sixtus wrote during his time as a teacher in Kirchberg. "It was important to me that the stamp tells a story that has to do with Kirchberg," says Anja Roocke, who brought the Sixtus archive to Kirchberg some time ago. Because that's what makes pilgrimages special: the stories you hear and the people you meet.

Pilgrim passports, pilgrim shells, hiking guides, an overview of pilgrim accommodation (there are two in Kirchberg!) and lots more information can also be found on the website

www.saechsischer-jakobsweg.de. Everything else is up to you - with the decision to go on a pilgrimage and the first step.