Pilgrimage Sites in Germany
Discover 17 sacred destinations in Germany
Aachen
Aachen Cathedral houses four great relics and hosts the Heiligtumsfahrt pilgrimage every seven years since 1349, attracting faithful to venerate treasures collected by Charlemagne.
Altötting
Germany's most beloved Marian shrine, where pilgrims have venerated the Black Madonna since 1489 and three popes have prayed at the "Heart of Bavaria."
Andechs
Bavaria's oldest pilgrimage site, where Benedictine monks have guarded relics of Christ since the 10th century on the Heiliger Berg—a holy mountain rising between two Alpine lakes, drawing over 30,000 organized pilgrims annually.
Bad Staffelstein (Vierzehnheiligen)
Home to the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Germany's most exuberant Rococo pilgrimage church, where Balthasar Neumann's architectural genius crowns the hillside where a shepherd boy saw visions of the patron saints of the suffering.
Bamberg
Bamberg is a significant Catholic pilgrimage destination housing the tomb of Emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II in its magnificent cathedral.
Bingen am Rhein
Where St. Hildegard of Bingen lived and died, pilgrims walk in the footsteps of this visionary Doctor of the Church along the banks of the Rhine.
Cologne
Cologne Cathedral houses the Shrine of the Three Kings, making it one of Northern Europe's most important Catholic pilgrimage sites.
Düren
Germany's foremost shrine to St. Anne, housing her head relic since 1501 in a modernist church rebuilt after WWII destruction.
Ettal
Imperial foundation where Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian's miraculous marble Madonna has drawn pilgrims since 1330, now crowned by one of Bavaria's most magnificent Baroque domes in a stunning Alpine valley.
Fulda
Spiritual heart of German Catholicism and burial place of St. Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans, whose magnificent Baroque cathedral draws pilgrims to venerate the father of the German Church.
Kevelaer
Kevelaer is Germany's largest Catholic pilgrimage destination, where Our Lady of Consolation has been venerated since 1641 following miraculous apparitions and healings.
Maria Laach
Germany's finest Romanesque abbey, rising from the shores of a volcanic crater lake—a thousand-year-old Benedictine sanctuary that became the heart of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement.
Oberammergau
Oberammergau is renowned for its Passion Play performed every decade since 1634, making it a significant Catholic pilgrimage destination in Bavaria.
Steingaden
Steingaden is home to the famous Pilgrimage Church of Wies, built after a miraculous weeping statue was discovered in 1738, attracting Catholic pilgrims seeking the Scourged Saviour's intercession.
Trier
Trier Cathedral houses the Holy Robe of Christ, drawing pilgrims for 500 years to Germany's oldest bishop's church and sanctuary.
Vierzehnheiligen
Germany's most spectacular Rococo pilgrimage church, built on the site where a shepherd saw visions of fourteen child-saints in 1445—Balthasar Neumann's masterwork rises above the Main Valley like a prayer in stone.
Walldürn
Walldürn hosts Germany's largest Eucharistic pilgrimage, centered on the famous 1330 blood miracle where Christ appeared on the consecrated host during Mass.