Felix Fabri
Brief Biography:
German Dominican Friar of the Preaching Order, born in 1441 or 1442, in Zurich. Died in Ulm, Germany in 1502 where he spent most of his life. Friar Felix made two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, in 1480 and again in 1483-4. He wrote two accounts of his travels, one in German (Ulm,1556); the other in Latin. The former is rather brief; the other is very complete and accurate in its descriptions of the places he visited. This second journal made Fabri one of the most distinguished and learned writers of the fifteenth century.

Brief Itinerary:
The first trip to the Holy Land took Felix from Ulm to Memmingen where he met some fellow pilgrims. They traveled overland through Innsbruck, over the Alps into present day Italy, through Treviso and on to Venice. From Venice the travelers sailed on a galley ship through the Mediterannean to Corfu, Crete and Cyprus. The captain of the ship avoided the Isle of Rhodes on the first leg of their journey due to the siege by the Turks on that Island. It was a normal stop by the pilgrims, usually, and was made by Felix and his companions on their return trip, and again by Felix when he returned to the Holy Land two years later. The return trip was by the same route.




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