Virtual Pilgrimage
Welcome to a virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land!
These pages are intended to give you a sense of the places visited by medieval Christian pilgrims, as well as to explain some of the historical background of the pilgrimage and the experiences along the way. I offer this site to the general public in the hope of providing insight and understanding.
I've designed the site as an experience. If you are working on a paper or report, I recommend that you read a couple of the books cited in my Inquiry page—you will find your answers much more quickly there. If, however, you want to learn more about medieval pilgrimages in a general way, then I think you will find the time you spend here to be rewarding.
Where Are We Going?
This particular pilgrimage starts in southwestern France, crosses the Alps into Italy, and goes through Lombardy to Venice.
From Venice we take a galley down the Adriatic and on to the Holy Land by way of Crete. Once in the Holy Land we of course will visit all the major sites.
How it Works
I have chosen to present the experience in the form of a narrative, following a group of pilgrims from Béarn in southern France across the Alps into Italy. From there we will go through Lombardy and book a ship in Venice. The Venetian galley will carry us across the eastern Mediterranean by way of Crete to the Holy Land. There you can follow the pilgrims to the standard pilgrimage shrines.
All the characters in this little narrative are fictional, but they come from places that are real and represent not only different aspects of medieval society but also different kinds of pilgrim experiences. Each character will have his own voice and will have an opportunity to speak now and again.
In addition, you will have the option along the way to read essays that will provide explanatory background, and to visit certain towns in more depth. This is not intended to be a quick visit but instead to be something that requires time to work through. While it is impossible actually to re-create the pilgrim experience, I hope that this slower approach will give at least some readers an appreciation of the many aspects of medieval pilgrimage. The navigation does provide some shortcuts, however. This is mainly as a convenience to the reader who needs several visits in order to complete the entire trip.
It should be noted, in this context, that I'm not speaking to the modern pilgrim but rather to the student of medieval society and culture.
Begin
With the preliminaries out of the way, click on the Begin link to start the journey.