A Christian Pilgrimage Around Europe Quiz

The Norwegian town of Nidaros is now better known as Trondheim, but until the Reformation it was one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in Northern Europe. Pilgrims travelled to visit the Shrine of St Olaf (or Olav), the Patron Saint of Norway, whose remains rested behind the high altar of the mediaeval Nidaros Cathedral. During his life, Olaf was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028, and after his death in battle various miracles became associated with his remains, leading to his canonisation.

The traditional pilgrimage route led from Oslo, Norway's capital city, for around 400 miles, ending at Nidaros Cathedral. It is now popular not just as a modern pilgrimage route, but as a long-distance hiking trail.

The small island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, was one of the earliest and most important centres of Christianity in Western Europe. In 563 AD the Irish missionary Columba founded a monastery here, from which Christianity spread into Scotland and Northern England. A Benedictine Abbey was later established there in the thirteenth century, although this was dissolved during the Reformation.

The present Iona Abbey was rebuilt in the 1930s and 40s by a group of Christians who became known as the Iona Community. It is now a centre for Christian retreats and a place of pilgrimage.

Rising to a height of 2704 feet above Clew Bay in County Mayo, Ireland, the mountain of Croagh Patrick has long been associated with the Saint whose name it bears. Tradition has it that Patrick fasted for forty days on its summit, and archaeological evidence suggests that there was some form of stone chapel on the summit as long ago as the fifth century AD, when Patrick is believed to have lived.

On the last Sunday in July, known locally as "Reek Sunday" (after the mountain's nickname), thousands of pilgrims climb to the summit of Croagh Patrick, and take part in masses in the modern chapel at the top. The traditional way is to make the climb barefoot, as an act of penance.

Many centuries before visions of the Virgin Mary made Lourdes and Fátima internationally famous, the small English village of Walsingham in Norfolk was a centre for pilgrimage for Christians that was almost as important as Jerusalem and Rome. The story goes that in 1061 a noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches had a series of visions of the Virgin Mary, who instructed her to build a replica of Christ's childhood home in Nazareth, which developed into a shrine and a popular place of pilgrimage during mediaeval times.

The priory and shrine were officially destroyed in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII, as part of the "Dissolution of the Monasteries", but during the early twentieth century there was a revival of interest. There are now both Anglican and Catholic shrines at Walsingham, both of which welcome pilgrims throughout the year.

Beginning in May 1917, just outside the small Portuguese town of Fátima, three young children aged seven, eight and ten reported seeing a series of visions of a glowing female figure whom they believed to be the Virgin Mary. The vision gave them various instructions, as well as three "secrets", culminating in the so-called "Miracle of the Sun" which was witnessed by over 70,000 people. The Roman Catholic Church recognised these as authentic Marian Apparitions, and Fátima almost immediately became a place of pilgrimage.

The shrine and associated religious buildings are now visited by around four million pilgrims every year. Although the younger two children died tragically young during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-20, the eldest, Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, became a nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.

The Shrine of St James the Great is the reputed tomb of the Apostle James and is situated in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain. James is the Patron Saint of Spain, and it is believed that his remains were transported there following his martyrdom in Jerusalem in AD 44.

The so-called "Camino de Santiago" or "Way of St James" has been one of the great Christian pilgrimage routes since around the 10th century AD. There are several pilgrimage routes through Europe (especially France) which converge on north-western Spain, joining the main route from the French border through northern Spain to the shrine itself. It remains a popular pilgrimage route in the 21st century.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is among the most famous Catholic shrines in the world and is situated in the market town of Lourdes in south-western France. Its fame is based on a series of appearances by the Virgin Mary in 1858 to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous which took place in a small grotto on the outskirts of the town. During these visitations, a spring of clean water began to flow from the grotto, and the apparition instructed Bernadette to drink and wash herself in the water. Subsequently, this water became associated with a series of miraculous cures, and to this day many Catholics believe it to have special healing powers.

The grotto and its spring remain at the centre of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, which also includes three basilicas and many other church buildings. Around four million pilgrims visit it every year.

The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is an icon depicting the Virgin Mary and infant Christ which can be seen in the Jasna Góra Monastery in the town of Częstochowa, Poland. As with other so-called "Black Madonna" images, the skin of the Virgin Mary is significantly darker than traditional Western images, and it is believed to be a Byzantine icon dating originally from between 500 and 700 AD.

Documentary evidence indicates that it was first brought to Poland by the fourteenth-century nobleman Vladislaus II of Opole. It remains Poland's most revered icon, and pilgrimages to the shrine are popular among Polish Catholics, as well as others around the world.

The Chapel of the Holy Shroud is located in the Italian city of Turin and was constructed in the seventeenth century to house the famous Christian relic known as the Shroud of Turin.

The Shroud of Turin is a large (14ft by 3ft) piece of linen cloth which bears the faint image of a man imprinted on it, both front and back, as if it had been folded over an individual whose image had been somehow transferred onto it. It has been venerated for many centuries by those who believe it to be the actual burial shroud of Jesus, although modern carbon-dating of fragments of the shroud have indicated beyond reasonable doubt that the material dates back only as far as the thirteenth or fourteenth century AD. This ties in with the first record of its existence, which dates from 1354.

One of the Dodecanese Islands, the small Greek island of Patmos can be found in the Aegean Sea, just off the coast of Turkey. It is famous as the location where the early Christian writer known as John of Patmos was living when he received a vision from Jesus Christ, the substance of which he wrote down as the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Christian Bible.

Visitors to Patmos can see the supposed site where John received his vision, known as the "Cave of the Apocalypse". Patmos is also home to the Greek Orthodox "Monastery of St John the Theologian", which dates back to 1088, and these two sites were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.