Via Francigena

Perhaps the most important road, for Italy, during the medieval age

Via Francigena was one of the most important, or perhaps the most important, roads in Medieval Italy, since it connected the trans-alpine region and Rome. A vast number of pilgrims speaking different languages, from different countries, means and cultures have crossed it in increasing numbers since the XI century, making it an important meeting and cultural exchange point. Its name comes from the fact that it was "generated" by the French and at times also called the “road founded in France” (Strata Francigenarum). You shouldn|"t imagine Via Francigena as the only artery that diagonally crossed medieval Europe from north to south, but as something much less defined and rather more complex. Documented sources reveal that there were many «Francigene» roads in medieval times and that there weren|"t different routes of the same road, but different routes of equal importance. The big medieval powers didn|"t create big roads

like in the Roman times, nor did the medieval roads offer a steady passage. There were in fact «areas of road» and «flow directions» without any chosen itineraries since everyone (traders and pilgrims) had various options open to them and planned their route each time, using the local Via francigena in the zones they crossed. When you wanted to indicate the destination, rather than the starting point, it was called “Via Romea”, with reference to the pilgrims direct from Rome, but you can find it indicated in other sources in different ways: the "King|"s Road (Via Regia), the "count|"s public road" (Via Publica Domini Comitis), the "pilgrim|"s road" (strata pellegrina or pellerina), or even, almost to emphasis its double use, the "public pilgrim|"s and trader|"s road" (strata publica eregrinorum et mercatorum). To learn further details of the Valdostane road itinerary on Via Francigena you can read the travel notes by the Archbishop of Canterbury Sigerico who in the last decade of the

X century, on his return from Rome (where he was called to receive his papal investiture), he noted the main stages of his journey (in Valle d|"Aosta he mentions Publey, a district near Montjovet, Augusta – Aosta - and Sce Remei - Saint-Rhémy) or the travel diary by the Icelandic abbot Nikulas of Munkathverache who travelled this road around 1154 on a journey from Thingor to Rome, stopping in «Bjanardz spitali», that is the Gran San Bernardo hospice, in Throelaborg (Etroubles), and Augusta (Aosta) and, lastly, in Pont-Saint-Martin which, as the old customs area of the Italic kingdom, was called Kamar, meaning «chamber».