Pilgrim trails in Celle

Official route description - Stage 12The approximately 2,200-kilometer-long pilgrimage route "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" from Stade to Rome on its route between Celle and Eltze-Rietze.

Official route description - Stage 11The approximately 2,200-kilometer-long pilgrimage route "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" from Stade to Rome on its route section between Sülze and Celle.

Official route description - Stage 10The approximately 2,200-kilometer-long pilgrimage route "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" from Stade to Rome on its course between Bergen and Sülze.

Official route description - Stage 09The approximately 2,200-kilometer-long pilgrimage route "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" from Stade to Rome on its course between Wietzendorf and Bergen.

In 1236, Abbot Albert of Stade traveled to Pope Gregory IX to enforce a monastery reform in his Benedictine monastery dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary in Stade. In his "Annales Stadenses," he documented the most important ecclesiastical and political events of his time. Embedded within this is a dialogue between two monks about the best route for a pilgrimage to Rome. In this dialogue (itinerary), Albert of Stade describes his own journey to Rome, including all rest stops and the exact distances between locations.In Germany alone, he names 28 cities. A 14th-century copy of this document is kept in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. Around 770 years later, the anthropologist Prof. Giovanni Caselli from Italy discovers this itinerary. Giovanni Caselli and a German theologian, Dr. Uwe Schott, invited all German mayors of these 28 cities to a meeting in Ochsenfurt in March 2008. This marked the revival of this old pilgrimage route from Stade to Rome.Meanwhile, the entire historic route has been researched. The goals of the "VIA ROMEA GERMANICA" – the path of encounters – are international understanding, interreligious dialogue, and the promotion of peace.