Chi brama di viaggiare a piedi, procuri ne' primi giorni di non affrettar troppo il cammino, ma avvezzare il corpo a poco a poco, crescendo sempre di giorno in giorno il moto, altrimenti non essendo la natura assuefatta, e forzandola ne' primi giorni potrebbe incontrare più tosto pregiudizio, che utile alla salute.
(Anyone wishing to travel on foot should take care not to hurry too much in the first few days, but accustom the body bit by bit, walking further each day; otherwise, as the body is not by nature habituated, forcing it in the first few days may cause more harm than good to the health.)
- Il Viaggiatore Moderno, ossia La vera guida per chi viaggia. Delle regole speciali per ciascun viaggiatore, e particolarmente per chi viaggia a piedi (1775), available on Google Books
Following this centuries-old piece of good advice for travellers on foot, I planned to break up this first stage after resuming my walk into two easily manageable sections. In addition to avoiding "harm to the health", another key incentive to arrange things this way was the possibility of stopping overnight at Kloster Holzen, a 12th-century monastery, rebuilt in 1696, which has at various times served as a castle, a military hospital and a home for seniors and people with disabilities, now converted into a luxury hotel; mindful of its pious origins, the hotel still offers rooms for pilgrims at a special discounted rate, equal to a third of the regular price!
As soon as my train pulled into the station at Donauwörth, it began to rain. At least it maintained continuity with the last day of my walk on May 31 of last year, when I arrived in Donauwörth soaking wet and took the train to Munich, where a heavy rain and flood warning was in effect! I walked from the railway station into the town centre in the rain. The morning market was just closing down, so I bought a pretzel with cream cheese and chives from the bakery stand and ate it standing in the shelter of the Rieder Tor city gate.
I waited a few more minutes for the tourist information office to reopen after lunch break, and went in to ask for a Via Romea stamp on my pilgrim passport. The office boasted several different stamps, for each of the different pilgrimage routes that pass through Donauwörth, on their way to all three of the most important pilgrimage destinations of Christianity - Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and Jerusalem.
A few bits of history, about a couple of legendary women of Donauwörth
The town of Donauwörth is located at the point where the Wörnitz river flows into the Danube, Europe's second-longest river. The town grew in importance during the 11th and 12th centuries under the protection of the castle of Mangoldstein, and in the 13th century it became the seat of Duke Ludwig II of Bavaria, who, however, ran off to Munich to escape his wife, Duchess Maria of Brabant, after only two years of marriage. Accusing his wife of infidelity, without even offering evidence of her misdeeds, the Duke had Maria beheaded, in an incident that was glorified in folklore and embellished with gory details in the ballads of subsequent centuries.
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| The beheading of Maria of Brabant, as depicted by Jan van Boendale |
Another notable female citizen of Donauwörth was the
Blessed Margareta Ebner, a 14th-century mystic and Dominican nun. Margareta became seriously ill and spent over a decade in bed; in the hopes of obtaining healing, Margareta did penance by abstaining from wine, fruit, and bathing - considered among the greatest pleasures of life, in her day. She experienced a series of visions and revelations from the Infant Jesus, which she recorded in her diary between 1344 and 1348. Margareta's correspondence with her confessor is also preserved, and constitutes the oldest surviving collection of letters in the German language.
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| The diary of Margareta Ebner, 1353 |
Having obtained what I needed from this historic city - some lunch and a pilgrim stamp - I left behind the colourful town centre of Donauwörth and crossed the bridge over the Danube.
The trail left town along a cycling path beside a busy road, then veered off into the fields to follow dirt farm roads for most of the day. Just outside the village of Mertingen the path skirted a large industrial plant, which turned out to be a dairy called Zott. Coming into Mertigen itself, I stopped in at the factory outlet store to buy a pot of Zott yogurt, which I ate right then and there, on the grass outside the store. It was delicious!
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| The Zott factory store, with matching Volkswagen 😍 |
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| The Zott corporate headquarters |
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Maypole on the main street in the village, called - what else? - Zott street!
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It is May in Bavaria again, and the maypoles are up. Mertingen has a particularly good town maypole, but I also saw lots of privately set up maypoles in front of houses. Some were dedicated to a girl, others to a couple, celebrating a wedding or a major anniversary.
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Inge & Vitus have been married for 60 years!
I saw them tottering about their garden 😁 |
Some of the maypoles and related garden decorations just seemed to celebrate, or wish for, good things in general.
I wrote a bit about the maypole tradition in
this blog entry last year, but if anyone reading this is Bavarian and can provide more information about the maypole traditions, please do so, in the comment section below!
Besides a fine maypole, Mertigen also had a fine church. Though unassuming on the outside, the door opened to reveal a triumph of Baroque plasterwork and carving on the inside.
In more practical terms, the churchyard contained a drinking fountain and a perfectly clean public washroom!
The sky was beginning to take on a threatening look, so I put on my rainjacket and backpack cover before leaving the church and the village of Mertingen. Three kilometres brought me to Druisheim, and three more from there to Kloster Holzen, where I am accommodated with an unaccustomed degree of luxury - for a pilgrim!
About Kloster Holzen
Holzen Abbey, founded in 1150, was originally a double monastery, home to both monks and nuns; the reform of monastic life that began in Melk in 1418 resulted in the closure of the monks' monastery in 1470, while the convent for nuns continued to grow and expand.
Severely damaged during the Peasants' War of 1525 and abandoned following the Swedish invasion of 1632, the convent was revived in 1647, and construction of the current buildings began in 1696. The abbey's Baroque church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was consecrated in 1710. Painter Wilhelm Leibl spent the summer of 1877 on the monastery grounds, when his home became a gathering-place for artists from Munich.
In the early 19th-century process of secularisation, the complex became the property of the principality of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and then of the counts of Fischler-Treuberg.
In 1927 the Treuberg family sold the monastery buildings to the St. Josef Congregation of Ursberg, which transformed the abbey into a facility offering living and working opportunities for people with disabilities. Kloster Holzen GmbH was founded in 2008 to redevelop the convent as a hotel and conference centre, but also continues to pursue its original mission with a daycare centre for the elderly, a shop selling crafts made by seniors and people with disabilities, and accommodations for pilgrims at a reduced price! Pictures and videos of Kloster Holzen are available at this link.
Donauwörth - Kloster Holzen 17 km
Where I am today:
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