The Via Francigena in Switzerland

11 December 2019

The origin of the Via Francigena, which links Canterbury to Rome, crossing England, France, Switzerland, and Italy, dates back to the ancient Roman road system when soldiers and merchants travelled from the South to the North of Europe and vice versa.

The Via Francigena goes through the cantons of Vaud and the Valais and crosses the Grand-Saint-Bernard pass. The Romans used this road when they were en route to conquer Britain in 43 AD.

The name of this ancient Roman road dates back to a much later period, however.

In 772, the Lombards (a kingdom in Italy, Ravenna was the capital)  threatened the papal states. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, saved the Pope. The road got the name Via Francigena, which means the ‘road which comes from France’.

The road became a Christian pilgrimage after the archbishop of Canterbury had travelled to Rome to receive the pallium from the Pope in 985. His itinerary was written down. The document is currently housed in the British Museum. It is a guide for pilgrims ever since.

The cantons of Vaud and Valais belonged to the Burgundian Kingdom in those days (888-1032).

The Swiss cities are written down in their (vulgar) Latin names: Bourg-Saint-Pierre (Petrecastel), Orsières (Ursiores), Saint-Maurice (Sce Maurici), Aigle (Burbulei), Vevey (Vivaec), Lausanne (Losanna), Orbe (Urbe) and Yverdon (Antifern).

In 1994, the Council of Europe recognised the Via Francigena as a European Cultural Itinerary, and in 2001, the European Association of the Via Francigena was founded.

(Source: A. M. Barelli, Le Chablais (Viterbo, 2014).