[Gocamino] New albergues

[Rosina]

Hello you all,

Bayreuth is a very beautiful, small, town in the Bavarian muntains, and while it is the dreamed-of Mecca of lovers of Richard Wagner's music who come from all over the world to the Wagner Festival, sometimes waiting up to ten years for a ticket, the town is certainly not on the Camino, Nevertheless it just opened its second albergue.? The first one is in the wooded outskirts in a former church entirely built of logs, but the new one is in the middle of town adjacent to the main Catholic chirch. It is more than just an albergue; those on their way to Santiago can stay there a few days (room and board) being conditioned for the pilgrimage with medical check ups, physical and spiritual guidance, maps, "pilgrimage kits" and so on.? In exchange for this larguesse they are charged with the maintainance of the pilgrimage signs and the cleanliness of the routes.

About an hour's away by car, also in the Bavarian mountains, there is the historical town of Bamberg (designated a universal cultural patrimony): This amazing town seems to have been bypassed by the Lutheran movement and it is almost entirely Cathlic with lots of 11th and 12th century churches, monasteries and like buildings. Miraculously, the town was spared the destructive devastation of both world wars and its medieval buildings are in magnificent condition. Right among them is the church of Saint James built in 1101 and its wondrous albergue. Last Saturday was a holiday there, and among the celebrations there was the seeing off of 24 pilgrims (12 men and 12 women, including 2 medical people) commencing the 2,250 kms. pilgrimage to Santiago.? It really was something to see, with the town's people waving them off with songs, flowers, waving kerchiefs and so on.

One of the speakers remarked that Germans were among the original hospitaleros and Templars who protected pilgrims going to Jerusalem, and that some of them are buried in churches in the area. He also said that while the book recently written by the German TV personality may have increased interest in the Camino, Germans, together with French and Italians, have been in the top three groups of non-Spaniards who have gone to the Camino over the past few decades, and that there is evidence of pilgrims from these parts going to Santiago for centuries.

It turns out that the first European Christian or renown, Saint Helena, was German and from a nearby town. As everybody knows, she made it her life's mission to rescue and preserve Christian relics from Jerusalem and other Palestinian and Judean sites, and she influenced her son, Emperor Constantine, in such manner that in the early fourth century he declared Christianity to be the official religion of Rome.

The rest is history.

By the way, both the Bayreuth and Bamberg albergues and churches dispense the official version of the credential issued by the Santiago Archdiocese: the brownish, accordion-like one, but written in German.

When I get back to New York I'll post some pictures of the albergues and their seals.

Hugs!

Rosina