Polscy rycerze i pielgrzymi w drodze do Composteli – przestrzeń, sacrum, czas

Polish knights and pilgrims on their way to Compostela — space, sacrum, time Camino de Sancti Jacobi — or the pilgrimage routes to Compostela were covered by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year in Medieval Europe. The pilgrims included a relatively small group of Poles, chiefly knights connected with the rulers. The Polish pilgrimages to St. James cathedral in Compostela are confirmed primarily by hand-written and printed documents, iconographic, cartographic and archaeological sources. Polish knights and pilgrims going from Poland to Santiago de Compostela travelled by local roads, tried by local communities, belonging to the transport corridors going from the East to the West of Europe and from Northern European states to the South of the continent. The choice of routes and method of pilgrimage depended primarily on the social status and wealth of the pilgrim. Most major pilgrimage routes in Poland started in Gdańsk, Toruń, Wrocław, Poznań and Kraków. The pilgrims used trade routes through Czechia, Moravia, Germany, Switzerland, France and, eventually, through regions in northern Spain. Some pilgrims travelled from Poland through Slovakia and Hungary, and next along German, French and Spanish routes. The sea route was chosen only rarely, from Gdańsk to Porto or to La Coruña, and next on foot to St. James cathedral in Compostela. On their way to Compostela the pilgrims stopped in sanctuaries, monasteries and trade towns where they found shelter in hospitals, poorhouses and hospices. The walking pace was conditional on many factors, primarily on the weather conditions, terrain, road condition, physical and mental health, as well as the endurance of animals (horses or mules). Assuming a Medieval pilgrim, a wanderer, covered about 25 km a day on foot during a day, the journey from Krakow to Santiago de Compostela (a distance of about 3,000 km) had to take at least 120 days, and from Vilnius to Compostela about 150 days. Obviously, it should be kept in mind the total pilgrimage duration must be doubled as the return of the pilgrim home from the sanctuary took more or less the same.