The Great Barrier

Leaving Neustadt, Samuel Kiechel faced a formidable obstacle on his journey. The Alps are the largest mountain range in central Europe, almost entirely blocking the Italian Peninsula from the north. In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon to attempt a crossing only in the summer months, or to avoid the mountains entirely and opt for a sea voyage, often no less dangerous. Nevertheless, with Rome as the centre of western Christianity, Venice as a jump-off point for pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and exotic commodities from the east on offer in the markets of the Italian city-states, there was always a desire or a need to cross the Alps.

The Romans had constructed a few roads through the mountain passes to reach their northern province. Those roads were still used in the early modern period. However, as I noted earlier, the term road is generous for the kind of pathways travellers most often encountered at the time. While the Romans went to the effort of constructing paved roads and their long existence speaks to the quality of their work, maintaining such roads was costly and, in remote regions like the Alps, impossible without the centralised organisation and labour available to the ancient Empire.

In the sixteenth century, travelling across the Alps usually meant traversing steep, rough and narrow rocky paths. Many passes lay above 2,000 metres, and snow and ice were common even in summer. Travellers had to be careful, as a sudden change in the weather could bring strong winds, freezing cold, fog and more snow. Being caught out in such weather could quickly turn deadly. It was not uncommon to wait out the winter months in one of the inns at the foot of the Alps before attempting to cross them. Individual travellers would band together or join a caravan to cross the massive mountain range. A group could provide support in case of accidents. Guides were hired, and baggage and trade goods were loaded from carts onto pack animals. A few routes across the mountains, especially in the Eastern Alps, were accessible by cart, but in general, it was better and safer to walk or ride. Rough roads took a heavy toll on early modern vehicles, and the lack of suspension meant passengers did not enjoy the ride.

The Nuremberg cartographer and physician Erhard Etzlaub produced the “Romweg” map (Roads to Rome) for German pilgrims travelling to Rome in the Catholic jubilee year of 1500. His map shows three possible routes across the Alps. More routes through the mountains existed, but Etzlaub’s aim was not to map the Alps; it was to give pilgrims from different regions of the Holy Roman Empire practical help in planning their journey.

Erhard Etzlaub’s “Romweg” map (1500) shows the three suggested passes over the Alps. The map is oriented towards the south, with Italy at the top.

The westernmost route runs via the Splügen Pass (2,114 m) from Chur to Lake Como. This option would have been particularly interesting to pilgrims from the western part of the Empire travelling up the Rhine River. Samuel Kiechel’s home town of Ulm is also connected to this pass. The mountain range west of the pass is named “mons santh bernhard” — the Great St. Bernard (2,469 m) was another well-travelled pass route, although it is not marked as such on Etzlaub’s map.

To the east, the Brenner Pass (1,370 m) is marked as the second option for crossing the Alps. On Etzlaub’s map, routes from the Baltic and North Seas through the centre of the Empire, via the influential imperial cities of Regensburg and Nuremberg, converge at this pass.

The easternmost and longest of the three routes crosses the Semmering Pass (984 m) via Villach to Venice. Etzlaub recommends this approach for pilgrims from Cracow, Olomouc and Vienna. This eastern route was also part of an old trade road. Amber from the Baltic was a highly coveted commodity in ancient Rome. The Amber Road, like many other old trade roads, was not a single road but a network of routes that ran from the Baltic coast via the Moravian Gate to the Danube, then across the Eastern Alps to Italy. Probably unknowingly, Samuel Kiechel followed this old route from Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea to the Alps. The Eastern Alps were wider but lower than the western part of the mountain range. Kiechel could therefore avoid crossing one of the higher passes. Given that it was already late in the year, this was probably a wise choice.

From Lower Austria into Styria

Map of Austria with Wiener Neustadt (“Nustat”), Spital and Bruck an der Mur (“Pruck an der Muer”), 1595

The Semmering Pass was relatively low compared with the passes in the western Alps. But in November, snow and ice made crossing it precarious. Spital lay on the other side of the pass, and from there Kiechel followed the valley of the Fröschnitzbach, a small stream, south-westward. The Fröschnitzbach flows into the Mürz, which in turn flows into the Mur. Because the traveller had to follow the path through the valley, he had little chance of getting lost.

Samuel mentioned that oxen were used to transport cargo across the mountains and that their hooves were shod with spiked horseshoes. On the narrow, steep mountain paths, pack animals were a common sight. People living in villages in the Alps and around access points to the pass routes made a living by transporting cargo with their animals. A ‘Saum’ was a historical unit of measurement for a pack animal’s carrying capacity. The transport of goods across the mountains was therefore called ‘Säumerei’, and the people engaged in this business were ‘Säumer’.

From the thirteenth century, the Säumer began forming cooperatives, gave themselves charters, and held transport monopolies along certain parts of the route. The cooperatives maintained their routes and ensured safety along them. This was especially true in Switzerland, whose loose confederate structure gave the cantons (districts) greater autonomy. In the Habsburg homeland of Austria, with its established feudal structures, the local lords along the pass routes had to be involved in the profitable transport business, preventing the establishment of any independent cooperative.

From Styria to Carinthia

Map of Carinthia with Judenburg (“Iudenburg”), Neumarkt (“Neumarck”), St. Veit (“S. Veit Metropolis”) and Villach

From Bruck, the Mur River flows south towards Graz, but Kiechel and his fellow travellers followed it westward and upstream towards Judenburg. Further up the Mur, at the village of Scheifling, they turned south and followed a valley to Neumarkt.

From Neumarkt, Kiechel and his companions rode along the Olsa Stream south to where it flowed into the Metnitz. Our traveller wrote that they had to traverse large frozen puddles of water. South of Neumarkt, the Olsa flows through a narrow gorge, and the group may have had to cross the small, frozen and snow-covered stream repeatedly.

Further south, the mountains open towards the Klagenfurt Basin, the largest basin in the Alps. At its northern edge lay St. Veit. Samuel Kiechel noted that many mines surrounded St. Veit. The area was renowned since antiquity for its iron ore and also had some silver mines. From St. Veit, the group turned west again and rode along the edge of the basin past Lake Ossiach towards Villach.

From St. Veit, the group turned west again and rode along the basin’s edge past Lake Ossiach towards Villach. The landscape, which forced travellers to follow the valleys, makes it fairly straightforward to reconstruct Kiechel’s route. It’s even possible to estimate the distances he covered each day. Each stage of the journey from Neustadt to Villach was around fifty to fifty-five kilometres, except for Neumarkt to St. Veit, which was only forty-two kilometres. This indicates fairly steady progress despite the landscape, road conditions and early winter weather.