Firstly various factors converged to boost the popularity of distant pilgrimage. After the crusading movement started in 1095, Europe experienced its golden era of devotional travel to Jerusalem. Pilgrimage offered the best medieval equivalent of the modern tourist trade, even though some pilgrims travelled not solely for pious motivations eg a crusade might have cloaked political and economic agendas.
Secondly Southern Italy and Sicily were conquered by bands of Normans who unified a region which had previously been politically fragmented (eg Greek Christians, Latin Christians, Jews and Muslims). By 1130 the Normans had created a powerful new monarchy which had been dominated by Muslim sea-power.
Thirdly Europe underwent a cultural renaissance so learned individuals travelled to seek classical traditions. Southern Italy and Sicily, with classical history and with a Greek and Islamic past, attracted both ancient & eastern learning.
The result of these three combined strands saw an influx of visitors who could properly be called tourists. High numbers of people regularly travelled both short and long distances, and some of this movement was driven by modern motivations: renewal, leisure and thrill-seeking.
While the pilgrims were travelling across foreign lands, they were encouraged to imitate Christ, to feel hardship and to focus on salvation. At many shrines en route, pilgrims could stay near a holy tomb, to receive cures or divine revelations. Even pilgrims were experiential travellers.
South Italy possessed one of medieval Europe’s more sophisticated travel infrastructures. Being so close to the heart of the former Roman empire, it still boasted functioning Roman roads which linked into the main route - it brought travellers from western Europe across the Alps to Rome. Via Appia helped travellers to move across the south Italian Apennines to the coastal ports of Apulia, while another road went via Calabria towards the bustling Messina port.
South Italian ports hosted fleets of local ships as well as those of the emerging commercial powers of Genoa, Pisa and Venice. So the pilgrim had secure, efficient and direct connections. At the same time, new hospitals, inns, bridges and monasteries emerged along Italy’s main pilgrim routes, or near shrines for foreign visitors. The major Apulian and Sicilian ports often hosted pilgrim hospitals belonging to Holy Land military monastic orders, Templars and Hospitallers. Messina was a particularly hectic port.
shrine at Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, France
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Most of the surviving evidence focuses on elite travellers – nobles and bishops. But travel, and pilgrimage in particular, was also undertaken by the very poorest. Monastic rules outlined their monks’ duty to offer free hospitality to all travellers. It was also good advertising for shrine centres to be seen to cater for all backgrounds. After all, foreign visitors spent money on local services and on profitable tolls. The guardians of southern Italy’s shrine centres actively competed for travellers.
Many pilgrims suffered from debilitating conditions, and struggled to cope with travelling demands. Many died. One chronicler of the First Crusade saw the drowning of 400 pilgrims in Brindisi harbour but, he said, dying as a pilgrim brought the hope of salvation. Of course threats of robbery, shipwreck and disease remained - no wonder pilgrims travelled in groups. It makes sense that the word travel comes from ancient word travail, meaning hardship.
Southern Italy’s landscape drew wonder and fear. Its seas in the busy Straits of Messina were full of tidal rips. Muslim travellers suffered a near-fatal shipwreck in the Straits in the 1180s. The famous 1280 map, Hereford Mappa Mundi, portrayed two sea monsters lurking in Sicilian waters.
Eruptions at Vesuvius and Etna were a regular feature: one struck at Catania Sicily in 1169 killing 15,000 people. The region’s volcanoes had even greater potency, connecting them to Hell’s Entrance and showing God’s disapproval.
In c1170 a Spanish Jewish traveller and author, Benjamin of Tudela, passed near Naples and marvelled at the sight of an ancient city submerged just off the coast. Like many travellers, he came there to access cutting-edge medical knowledge, a fusion of Arabic and ancient Greek learning that had been a specialty in Salerno.
To prove that travellers had been to the distant city they had aimed for, each would buy a badge to show off back at home. Typically made of lead alloy, the badges were sold as souvenirs at Christian pilgrimage sites and related to the particular saint venerated there. The shrine at Saint-Josse-sur-Mer in France was named after a hermit, St Jos, in a monastery. His hermitage became a popular site for late C14th English pilgrims on the way to more distant shrines.
In the most appealing and popular sites across Europe (Jerusalem in Israel, Compostela in Spain, Canterbury in England, Cologne in Germany etc) the badges tended to be standardised eg St Thomas Becket was the most popular subject in Canberbury and a shell was sold most frequently in Compostela.
map created in 1280.
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Conclusion
Medieval travellers displayed traits that reflected aspects of our modern understanding of tourism. Southern Italy was an alluring travel hotspot - it had developed travel and service structures, it catered for those seeking spiritual salvation, it provided learning and tested those who sought challenges. Those challenges were often sought as ends in themselves.
Conclusion
Medieval travellers displayed traits that reflected aspects of our modern understanding of tourism. Southern Italy was an alluring travel hotspot - it had developed travel and service structures, it catered for those seeking spiritual salvation, it provided learning and tested those who sought challenges. Those challenges were often sought as ends in themselves.
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20 comments:
It's interesting how how the misconception about travel prevails through societies. But if you think about, people have probably always been on the move, even back to our earliest ancestors. Have a great weekend Hels.
It is that perception that medieval Europe was rather confined in their locality. A beautifully written article again
Dear Helen! I am sure that in the Middle Ages people were like us. They also suffered, loved their children, dreamed of a happy life, hated war.
Helen, I invite you to watch Steven Seagal's film on my blog. I hope you know this American actor.
Dear Helen! Steven Seagal is not an anti-Semite. He is simply comparing how carefully Russia wages war without killing a single civilian. Do you know how many women and children were killed in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen? Israel is at war with 5 countries. At the BRICS summit, our President V.V. Putin said that only the creation of a Palestinian state can stop the war.
Interesting. Back then they sure did have problems in their travel, not like today we just hop on a plane or in a car and off we go.
That is a most interesting post. Today's pilgrims are not so very different in outlook to those of times past. It is faith and curiosity that leads them on. I don't regard tourists as pilgrims, though.
Hello Hels, I agree with Erika that travel was probably more common then previously imagined. Ancient mythologies are filled with epics that involved lots of travel, which at least shows that the idea was familiar. Also, the evidence keeps mounting for more and more complicated trade routes in the ancient world. Well, trading is like travel--it involves groups of people going to distant places, where they would need services such as lodging, food and medical care, which would pave the way for more ordinary travelers.
--Jim
Were mediaeval travellers warned about plagues in the same way we were warned about Covid?
Erika
Good question. Mediaeval traders may have travelled often, but mediaeval people who left home because of religious or cultural reasons probably made their dream trip only once on their lives.
roentare
Mediaeval travellers could only go as far in one day as their horse could manage. Wealthier travellers could at least take a wagon and swap the horse when they arrived at a horse exchange facility.
Irina
Right! But not only did they have to worry about their own health and safety. Mediaeval men had to worry about the wives and children they left at home, without any income for some months.
Margaret
Modern travellers still have to worry about:
1.Catching covid and other diseases in foreign lands;
2.Running into wars they may not even know of;
3.Their planes and ships being suddenly cancelled;
4.Insurance not covering sudden emergencies overseas etc.
jabblog
Exactly. Pilgrims may not have had any more money than others, but they were driven by their church's teaching to visit a key holy site at least once in their lives. Thus I tried not to use the word tourists.
Parnassus
When I was writing about the Silk Road, those traders thought they and their precious goods were protected eg by travelling in caravans. And they were indeed better off than non-traders.
But even they were attacked by robber gangs.
Deb
Pilgrims were certainly warned about plagues, knowing they were very often fatal.
Each pilgrim was given a badge to wear outside his clothing, blessed by the priest before leaving home. If and when they arrived safely at Santiago de Compostela or wherever, the badge was pressed against the saint, to strengthen the protection against the plague.
Thanks for writing but I really don't value Seagal's name on my blog. I am sure you understand.
albert
ha ha... this is an Australian blog. Totally illegal here.
Not something I have ever given any thought to, travel back then would have been long, tiring and dangerous, travel now days is often long, tiring and dangerous at times, at other times it is short, tiring and safe. Also travel can leave a person thinking wow what a great trip or wow what a waste of time should have stayed home
Jo-Anne
I have never thought of travel being a waste of time, but I have often thought of a trip as too cold, too much to pack in for the time we had, too much diarrhea or not enough medical care.
However other of my contemporaries booked trips in or over war zones and had to stay in the least chaotic conditions. Most were diverted to other countries.
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