Our perception of medieval Europe is of a confined world in which people rarely travelled beyond their own locality, and when they did it was for religious reasons. But Paul Oldfield asked us to consider Southern Italy and Sicily. Due to its central Mediterranean location, the region began to attract more European visitors for three main reasons:
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Canterbury Tales
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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 and 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.
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Pilgrim badge bought at
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 always remained - no wonder pilgrims travelled in groups. It is no coincidence that the word travel comes from ancient word travail, meaning hardship.
Southern Italy’s landscape elicited 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.
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Hereford Mappa Mundi
Amazon
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 and 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 always remained - no wonder pilgrims travelled in groups. It is no coincidence that the word travel comes from ancient word travail, meaning hardship.
Southern Italy’s landscape elicited 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.