St. James trail
Saint James the Elder
One of the 12 apostoles, son of Zebedee, elder brother of St. John the Evangelist, fisherman from Lake Gennesaret, the most trusted disciple of Christ, patron of pilgrims. According to tradition, the saint was to come to the area of today's Spain, to Santiago de Compostela, guided by a star. According to tradition, in the first half of In the 9th century, the tomb of the apostle was discovered in Compostela, and the King of Asturias Alfonso II built a Sanctuary over the tomb.
In the Middle Ages, the city became a destination for pilgrimages from all over Europe. There are traces of Polish pilgrims in the documents collected in Santiago. During the Reformation and religious wars, the pilgrimage movement ceased. The 20th century becomes the century of the revival of the pilgrimage movement. The Council of Europe, in the 1980s, recognizes the route of St. James as the most important cultural route in the uniting Europe. A visit to the sanctuary of Pope John Paul II causes a stormy bloom of the pilgrimage movement.
In 2007, the Local Tourist Organization Piast Trail marks a section of the Way of St. James, from Mogilno, through Trzemeszno, Niechanowo to Gniezno.
The trail starts at the parish church. St. James the Elder, in Mogilno. Gothic church, single-nave, from 1511. Inside the church there are 4 gothic portals and 2 rococo side altars. On the outer wall of the chancel, the figure of St. James with a pilgrimage staff.
Near the parish church, the complex of the post-Benedictine church of St. John the Evangelist, with monastery buildings. The building was funded by King Bolesław the Bold in 1065.
The road continues along the shore of Lake Mogileńskie, next to the cemetery, from the Mausoleum of Fr Piotr Wawrzyniak and through the town of Gozdawa, along the way of St. Wojciech to Duszno, next to the church of St. Dorothy and the historic nineteenth-century smithy, through Folusz to Niewolno. From Niewolno we come to the train station in Trzemeszno. Along the trail and after crossing the national road No. 15, we reach the market square in Trzemeszno, next to the Jan Kiliński monument, we go towards Michał Kosmowski Square. We stop at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, after visiting the church, we pass the former Alumnat and head towards the Baba Park and then along the road towards Witkowo, at the forester's lodge called Krzyżówka we turn right and follow the royal trail (green), through Trzuskołoń we reach Niechanów. A beautiful avenue of roses leads us to the parish church of St. James the Elder. A wooden church from the 18th century, with a brick western part added at the beginning of the 20th century, is a unique architectural decoration. Inside the church there is a unique baptistery in the shape of a "Garden of Eden". In the main altar there is a painting of St. James the Elder and the relics of St. Maksym, a statue of Our Lady of Jazłowiec on the side wall. Near the church there is a tomb of General Jan Krasicki - Napoleon, general of the Polish army. In the park, a classical palace in which the creator of the National Anthem, Gen. Józef Wybicki, stayed.
The road leads through the village of Goczałkowo to Gniezno, to the Lech Hill.
St. James continues through: Braciszewo, Żydko, Dziekanowice, Imiołki, Dąbrówka Kościelna to Murowana Goślina and further towards Lower Silesia.