Pilgrim's Road
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The Pilgrim's Road or Pilgrims' Road
Description
The name Pilgrim's Road has been traditionally given to the network of roads that connected Constantinople with the eastern provinces of the
While the route ensured primarily a rapid connection especially for military forces, pilgrims such as the anonymous pilgrim of Bordeaux who wrote the
History
The possibly first prominent pilgrim that took the Pilgrim's road was the mother of Constantine the Great, Helena, whose route was retraced by the author of the Itinerarium Burdigalense and who took around two months to get from Constantinople to Jerusalem in 326.[5] In the century after the Bordeaux pilgrim, possibly on instigation of bishop Basil of Caesarea, many hostels were founded along the road, often by wealthy Roman women. These hostels, also known as xenodochia, resembled earlier Greek or Roman inns but were catering specifically to pilgrims, were operated by monks and were typically funded from Church funds or by donations so that also poor pilgrims could use the facilities.[5]
During the middle Byzantine period the route via Ancyra fell out of favour as the Byzantines preferred the route to the Cilician Gates via
See also
- First Crusade, who used this route
- Other pilgrimage routes
- Hajj, Muslim pilgrimage, using routes known as Darb al-Hajj
- Stepped street (Jerusalem), a.k.a. "Jerusalem pilgrim(s)/pilgrimage road"
- Pilgrim's Road from Ballycumber to Clonmacnoise monastic site
References
- ^ Pilgrims' Road, The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (2018), Oxford University Press, via OxfordReference.com. Accessed 23 Aug 2023.
- ^ a b c 1963 S. Frederick Starr, "Mapping Ancient Roads in Anatolia" Archaeology, 16:165
- ^ ISBN 9780190610470. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
- ^ a b David H. French. "Roman Roads & Milestones of Asia Minor" (PDF). Biaa.ac.uk. p. 16. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- ^ ISBN 9781134583706. Retrieved 3 July 2023.