The Franconian Marienweg is a 1920 km long long-distance hiking trail through Lower Franconia, Upper Franconia and Middle Franconia.
It touches 87 places of pilgrimage in the diocese of Würzburg and the archdiocese of Bamberg.
Short sections of the route also run through Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Thuringia and the Upper Palatinate.
His marking logo is Our Lady in a red robe with a child in a blue robe on a dark blue background.
It was created in 2002 on the initiative of Josef Treutlein, pastor of St. Josef in the Grombühl district of Würzburg with a west and an east loop, each with a start and finish in Würzburg.
According to his own statements, however, he has not yet fully committed it.
The signposts are based on older hiking routes that counties and hiking associations have already defined and marked.
The initiator of the long-distance hiking trail was primarily planned for pilgrims, pilgrims, church associations and other Christian-oriented hiking groups, but is also generally used as a leisure hiking and cycling trail.
It touches not only well-known Franconian pilgrimage sites such as Mariabuchen, Kälberau, Hessenthal and Kreuzberg Monastery, but also wine towns such as Dettelbach and Volkach, a traditional spa (Bad Kissingen) and numerous art historical highlights that are found in larger cities such as Würzburg and Aschaffenburg as well on the more remote stages, such as the Tilman-Riemenschneider altar in the parish church of St. Magdalena in Münnerstadt.
In 2020 the Marienweg was expanded to include routes in Upper and Middle Franconia (Archdiocese of Bamberg).
Like the older routes, these also consist of two longer circular hiking trails (starting from Bamberg): the western Magnificat route (466 km) and the eastern Ave Maria route (593 km).
(Source: Wikipedia)