Konrad Grünenberg

Conrad Grünenberg (also Konrad Grünemberg; d. 1494) was an inhabitant of Constance known for his armorial, a chronicle containg coats-of-arms (Österreichische Wappenchronik, 1492?) and for the illustrated travelogue of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1486 (extant in several manuscripts including Cod. St. Peter pap. 32 in Baden State Library).

Grünenberg was perhaps born in the 1420s, as the son of the mayor of Constance. He is first mentioned in 1441 in the list of eldermen. By 1465, he had been in the service of emperor Frederick III for some time, and from 1485 or 1486 held the rank of Ritter. In Jerusalem, he apparently was made a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. He was furthermore a member of the Order of the Jar and of the Austrian Order of Saint George.

His pilgrimage to the Holy Land lasted 33 weeks, from April to early December 1486. Starting out in Constance on 22 April, he travelled to Venice via Rheineck, Sterzing in Tyrol and Trento, and (31 May) from Venice by galley via Poreč, Zadar, Šibenik, Lesina, Korčula, Ragusa, Corfu, Modon in Morea, Candia in Crete, Rhodes, Famagusta in Cyprus, arriving in Jaffa on 24 July. Travelling by donkey he visited Lydda, Ramla, Emmaus (i.e. Imwas), Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and took a ship back from Jaffa on 1 September, reaching Venice on 16 November (Saint Othmar's day), returning home in early December. The two earliest illustrated manuscripts describing the pilgrimage were completed very soon after his return to Constance and are claimed to be autograph.