Via Romea Germanica Day 25: Bad Langensalza - Gotha

One of the main problems facing anyone wanting to 'follow in the footsteps' of medieval pilgrims is that we know next to nothing about their journeys. 

- Peter Robbins, https://www.peterrobins.co.uk/itineraries/ (2008)

Why did the abbot Albert of Stade walk from Bad Langensalza to Gotha? - Well actually the other way around, because the Via Romea Germanica is based on Albert's itinerary on his way back from Rome to Stade, not on his itinerary on the way to Rome, when he travelled through France, most likely to visit the mother abbey of the Cistercian order in Cîteaux. But the question is, why did he not travel through Erfurt, which was a very important city in medieval times, situated on the Via Regia east/west trade and pilgrimage road? Seat of the diocese since 742, Erfurt is still a more important city, the capital and largest city of the region of Thüringen. And it's only 20 kilometres away! So why didn't Albert go there? We don't know. 

Following in his footsteps, I walked through the centre of the town of Bad Langensalza, then passed by the train station and followed a dirt road parallel to the train tracks out into the fields. By the time I reached the village of Illeben I could hear the piece of strawberry cake left over from the previous night's dinner party calling to me from its box in the top pocket of my backpack. I sat down in front of the church and transferred this unnecessary weight from my backpack into my stomach.

My host, Jörg, had warned me that today's route would not be flat, and in fact it was a series of ups and downs, over a series of ridges. The villages were always in the valleys in between. From Illeben to Eckhardsleben I straightened out a curve in the route by taking a shortcut along the road, as there was no traffic on a Sunday morning. I passed through one more tiny village, Aschara, and then out into vast open fields. 

The vast wheatfields of Thüringen are a legacy of collective farming, back when the region was a part of East Germany. You can't just walk across, right through the crops, so at one point I had to walk in a huge U-shape around the outside of a gigantic field! At the top of the next ridge was a vast wind farm.

The weather was absolutely perfect for walking: sunny but not too hot, with a cool breeze blowing. I stopped on a bench in full sunshine just before the village of Westhausen to eat a lunch of hummus with a cucumber, a carrot and some crackers. Then I laid down on the bench, used my backpack as a pillow, and took a siesta. 

Westhausen was a pretty ordinary German village; here's a picture to give you an idea.

In Warza, on the other hand, there was a maypole!

And a beer hall, but I didn't go in; I still had another hour or so to walk. I could see the castle of Gotha in the distance as I walked the final kilometres along a cycling path.

Gotha

A prosperous city in the Middle Ages,  located on the Via Regia trading route and specialising in the production of cloth and of woad for blue dye, Gotha became an important centre of the sciences and the arts between 1650 and 1850. 

The Rathaus or town hall in Hauptmarkt was built as a bourse between 1566 and 1574, in Renaissance style. It has been used as town hall since 1665.

The city's Baroque Friedenstein Castle was built between 1643 and 1654. 

Gotha was of great importance for German publishing around the year 1800. The late 19th-century industrial boom saw the establishment of industries such as Gothaer Waggonfabbrik, producing streetcars and, later, aeroplanes. Gotha was also an important centre of banking and insurance. 

The brief boom of German industry in the years 1867 to 1873, when it ended with a major stock market crash, is referred to as Gründerzeit, a term also used to describe the architectural style of the period. Private property developers constructed whole streets and districts of new buildings, usually four to six floors high, with richly-decorated façades in Historicist styles such as Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, German Renaissance and Baroque Revival. There are plenty of examples of these styles in Gotha.

I made my way through the city centre to my lodgings at the Augustinerkloster, which is no longer a monastery but a church-run hostelry; the rooms have been modernised and are made available to guests of all kinds, just like hotel rooms, while preserving the silence and meditative atmosphere of a cloister. A special rate is available for pilgrims, less than half of the regular price!

Augustinerkloster 

First mentioned as the residence of Augustinian monks in documents dated 1258, the monastery was originally Cistercian. Abandoned in 1525, in 1989 the monastery and church became a centre of prayers for peace and the starting point for Gotha of the peaceful demonstrations that led to the reunification of Germany.

The Augustinerkloster has now been revived as a modern gathering-place and event venue for the Protestant church, with a hostelry, a café, a hall and a library. 

View of the cloister from my window

My simple but immaculate room

My dinner at an Indian restaurant in a former brewery!

Bad Langensalza - Gotha 26.5 km