Of
Joachim Gores
Pilgrimages are a very old Christian tradition – which has recently found new encouragement. In 1993, Unesco declared the Way of St. James a World Heritage Site. As a result, the number of pilgrims visiting the Spanish pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela increased nineteenfold between 1989 and 2008. In 2019 – the year before the outbreak of the corona pandemic – around 350,000 pilgrims arrived there, more than ever before. In Germany, Hape Kerkeling’s bestseller “I’m Gone Then” triggered a veritable boom in pilgrimage.