Description

This very rare pamphlet in German language offers valuable information on the first organised pilgrimage to the Holy Land, organised by the Swiss church in 1903. In includes a list with names of 501 pilgrims, with regions they come from. The second part of the book gives detailed information for the travellers: timetables, train stations, money currencies, and information on the meals, prepared for them, and the priests, which would accompany them. An inserted sheet gives last corrections on the pilgrimage.

The pilgrims, according to the list in the first part, came not only from Switzerland, but also from north of Italy, south Germany and Austria. The first gathering point was Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, Austria, on September 1^st. The train, which left at 7.30 in the morning, took them through Innsbruck, Lienz, Villach and Ljubljana to Triste. The train ride lasted exactly 23 hours and meals were provided along the way.

In Trieste the pilgrims boarded a ship. They returned back to Trieste on September 24^th, and returned home by train the same way.

In 1903 travel to Ottoman Palestine was dangerous and  difficult to arrange. The second organised Swiss pilgrimage to the Holy Land followed in 1908. Only one pamphlet from that journey with a title Zweifaches Pilgerverzeichnis und verschiedene Mitteilungen für die II. schweizer. Volkswallfahrt in’s Hl. Land: 1. bis 22. September 1908 is recorded on Worldcat (Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek Luzern Standort Sempacherstrasse, OCLC  809827143).

We could not find any other recorded examples of this pamphlet.