Bad Wurzach (dpa/lsw) - Before the eyes of thousands of pilgrims, hundreds of riders rode through Upper Swabian Bad Wurzach on Friday for the Holy Blood Festival. According to the city, with around 1,500 riders, the festival is the second largest equestrian procession in Central Europe - right after the blood ride in the nearby town of Weingarten. Blood riders were part of the procession there for the first time this year after a long-standing ban. In Bad Wurzach women have been allowed to participate as riders for a long time.
The Bad Wurzacher Blood Ride with 66 groups of riders and music bands including the blessing marked the start of the Holy Blood Festival on Friday. In the afternoon there will be a sermon on the mount in front of the pilgrimage church on the Gottesberg. The focus of the festival is the veneration of a blood relic that came from the private collection of Pope Innocent XII. originates. According to legend, in 1693 the Pope gave a blood-soaked handkerchief to a German pilgrim from Albrechts near Obergünzburg. In 1764 the relic came to the Gottesberg near Wurzach.
