Via Francigena

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Route of the Via Francigena.
Route of the Via Francigena.
A sign showing the way, located in Italy.
A sign showing the way, located in Italy.

The Via Francigena is an ancient road between Rome and Canterbury. It was an important medieval road and pilgrimage route connecting north-western Europe with Rome. To pilgrims headed south, it was the Via Romea, to those headed north, the Via Francigena.

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[edit] The pilgrimage to Rome

The Via Francigena was the major medieval pilgrimage route to Rome from the north; even today pilgrims travel this route but in far fewer numbers than the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago). The route that was first documented as the "Lombard Way", was first called the "Frankish Route", the Iter Francorum, in the Itinerarium sancti Willibaldi of 725, recording the travels of Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria. The "Via Francigena" is first mentioned in the Actum Clusio, a parchment of 876 in the Abbey of San Salvatore al Monte Amiata (Tuscany).[1] At the end of the tenth century Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, travelled the Via Francigena going to Rome to see the Pope in order to be consecrated and returning to Canterbury;[2] he made a record of the route and his stops on the return journey,[3] but nothing in the documentation of his journey suggests that the route was in any way considered new. In 1985 the Italian archaeologist of roads, Giovanni Caselli, retraced the itinerary as described by Archbishop Sigeric.

The Via Francigena is not a single 'road' in the strict sense of a Roman road, paved with stone blocks and provided at intervals with a change of horses for official travellers. It comprises several possible routes that changed over the centuries as trade and pilgrimage developed or waned. Depending on the time of year, political situation, and relative popularity of the shrines of saints along the route, travellers may have taken one of three or four crossings of the Alps and the Apennines. The Lombards paid for the maintenance and defence of the section of road through their territories as a trading route to the north from Rome, avoiding enemy held cities such as Florence. Unlike Roman roads, the Via francigenia did not connect cities, but relied more on abbeys.

A steep section of the Via Francigena in Settimo Vittone, Piedmont
A steep section of the Via Francigena in Settimo Vittone, Piedmont

[edit] Itinerary

The eighty stages in Sigeric's itinerary averaged about twenty km a day, covering some 1700 km; they have been the basis for reidentifying the route today.

Having crossed the English channel the pilgrim bound for Rome would stay in Arras, Reims, Châlons-sur-Marne, Bar-sur-Aube, Langres, Besançon, Pontarlier, Lausanne, Saint-Maurice then over the Saint Bernard Pass to Aosta, Ivrea, Vercelli, Pavia, Fidenza, Lucca, Poggibonsi, Siena, Bolsena, Viterbo, and to Rome.

[edit] The Via Francigena today

In 1994 the Via Francigena was designated a Euopean Cultural Route by the Council of Europe. Today those who make the pilgrimage to Rome on foot, horseback or bicycle still travel this route but in far fewer numbers than the Way of St. James. There are fewer facilities for pilgrims than on the Way of St. James, and pilgrims are forced to camp out or stay in more expensive accommodation such as hotels and pensions.

In November 2005, Italian politician Romano Prodi announced he would revitalize the Via Francigena if elected Prime Minister in the 2006 election.

On 11 August 2007, a group of 27 cyclists, including several members of Canterbury City Council, set out from Canterbury Cathedral in an attempt to cycle the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome in 16 days to raise money for the restoration of Canterbury Cathedral and other charities.

One of the most know point of Via Francigena is Passum Padi in the municipallity of Senna Lodigiana where the Pò was crossed by Sigeric.Today a monument remeber the crossing of the river by the archibishop. 45°07′51″N, 9°33′16″E

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Via Francigena: history (PDF)
  2. ^ Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation (New York: Carroll & Graf) 2006:294-295.
  3. ^ The transcript was in the Cottonian Library, now in the British Library (Cotton Tiberius B.v., folios 34 and 35; On-line map of Sigeric's route[dead link]

[edit] Literature

[edit] External links

[edit] Via Francigena associations

[edit] Pilgrims associations

[edit] Travelogues