On the Trail of Abbot Albert

From 1235 to 1237, Abbot Albert von Stade, abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Stade at the time, travelled to Italy to achieve a monastic reform.

He wanted to realise the planned transformation of his monastery into a Cistercian one with help of the Pope and chose to travel to Italy by taking a diversion via Belgium and France. Among other places, he visited the pilgrimage church in St Jean de Maurienne between Chambery and Turin, which contained the relics of John the Baptist. The church of the Stade Franciscan monastery was later to be dedicated to this saint.

After months of effort, he finally received a document from Pope Gregory IX. Unfortunately, the letter did not answer Abbot Albert’s requests in the way he had hoped. For his voyage home, he then took the more direct route from Tyrol via the Brenner Pass, Bavaria, Thuringia and the Harz Mountains northwards along the route we know as the Via Romea Germanica today.

His efforts to convert the St. Marien monastery in Stade failed. He left the monastery and the Benedictine order and joined the Stade Franciscan convent in 1240.

He produced several works. In “Annales Stadenses”, he documented the most important political and ecclesiastical events of his time and also wrote about the experiences on his journey to Italy, giving extremely precise details of the route and the distance he travelled each day. The route of the Via Romea Germanica is therefore historically based. The entire historical route has now been researched.

The travelogues of Abbot Albert von Stade were already receiving attention in the late Middle Ages and remain relevant today due to the opportunity to explore the Via Romea Germanica in his footsteps.