Along the Annenpfad
Saint Anna was one of the most popular saints in the late Middle Ages. According to legend she is Maria's mother and thus Jesus' grandmother.
She was the patron saint of guilds, tradespeople, women and mothers, miners and menials, and who people struck by the plague and lame people prayed to for help and relief. A skirt of Saint Anna was supposedly kept in Alt Krüssow which made the place a place of pilgrimage quickly.
Apparently threescores upon threescores (1 threescore equals 60 items) of crutches, which were donated as thanks to the miraculous relic, were kept at the pilgrim's church. Although places of pilgrimage lost their significance following the Reformation, the elaborate churches with their valuable decor remained.
You can marvel at the carved altars and the images of Saint Anna at the St Nikolai church in Pritzwalk, the museum at the Kloster Stift zum Heiligengrabe as well as at the Stadtmuseum Berlin. The idea for a pilgrim's path that connects the pilgrimage churches in Heiligengrabe, Alt Krüssow and Bölzke was realized in 2011 when the Annenpfad was created. Inside and around the church of the village Bölzke an exhibit illustrates the phenomenon that is pilgrimage that is present in all cultures on earth.
Every year on Maundy Thursday the annual “Anpilgern” (the opening of the pilgrimage season) takes place along the 22 km long Annenpfad.