Saint Martin’s Trail

LOCATION
Slovenia

DESCRIPTION
The Trail of Saint Martin of Tours, which was proclaimed in 2005 by the Council of Europe to be a Grand European Cultural Trail, is 2,500 km long and links the locations that marked the life (and the veneration) of this celebrated saint. In begins in Szombathely, Hungary, the place of birth of Saint Martin, then continues through Slovenia to Pavia, Italy, where he grew up. The next key location is Tours, France, where he was appointed bishop and where he is buried in today’s Saint Martin of Tours Basilica, and ends at Candes-Saint Martin in France, where he died. In Slovenia, the trail begins at the village of Domanjševci, leaving Slovenia after some 550 km at Opatje Selo. It leads through Slovenian locations that have some sort of connection to Saint Martin, either through their name or something else. In Slovenia, over eighty churches and chapels are dedicated to Saint Martin, and a lot of places are named after him (e.g. Šmartno, Šmartin, etc.).