Via Sacra Czech cycling pilgrimage route - Stage from Zittau to Hejnice

The pilgrimage church Mariae Heimsuchung in Hejnice/Haindorf has its origin in a Marian legend: a severely ill woman and her child were miraculously healed because the family father had followed the request of an angel and attached the image of the Mother of God to a lime tree, crafted by a carver from Zittau. The tree and later its stump with the statue of Mater Formosa ("The noble graceful mother") quickly became a place of pilgrimage. From 1211 onwards, the figure was covered by increasingly larger chapels and churches. Haindorf became an important pilgrimage site and was often called Bohemian Mariazell. Currently, the church at the foot of the Jizera Mountains is one of Bohemia's most important pilgrimage sites.

 Zittau was elevated to city status in 1255 by the Bohemian King Ottokar II and was especially promoted as a bridgehead north of the border mountains. Having become considerably wealthy through beer exports as well as cloth and linen trade, the city could even compete with Leipzig in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Six-City League, it bore the nickname "the Rich." A trace of this is still evident in the cityscape, even if the city treasury no longer has much to show. The idea of the Via Sacra arose here because of the now famous Lenten cloths far beyond Germany. The uniquely German 8.20 m high and 6.80 m wide Lenten cloth from 1472 – presented in the largest museum showcase in the world – can be admired in the "Church of the Holy Cross" museum. The second cloth, which is "small" only in comparison with the large one, is exhibited in the Cultural History Museum in the Franciscan Monastery. The epitaph treasure presented in the monastery church can also be regarded as unique.