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5 unusual facts about Walk to Canossa


Amadeus II, Count of Savoy

Amadeus and Adelaide then escorted the imperial couple to Canossa so the excommunicated emperor could reconcile with the pope.

Dennis Gastmann

His notable works include the bestsellers With 80,000 questions around the world, Walk to Canossa and the German TV series Mit 80,000 Fragen um die Welt.

Liutold of Eppenstein

The king, having returned from Canossa, appointed Liutold instead, who had given him safe conduct through his Carinthian possessions on his way back to Germany.

Walk to Canossa

The term Walk to Canossa (German, Gang nach Canossa), sometimes called the Humiliation of Canossa (Italian, l'umiliazione di Canossa), refers to the trek of Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire from Speyer to the fortress at Canossa in Emilia Romagna to obtain the revocation of the excommunication imposed on him by the Pope Gregory VII.

On the other side, Canossa is remembered in Italy by Benedetto Croce as the first concrete victory after the fall of the Roman Empire of the Pope, who, for the 19th-century historian, represented the Italian people, against the domination of the Germans.


Canossa

The Walk to Canossa is sometimes used as a symbol of the changing relationship between the medieval Church and State.

Investiture Controversy

As penance for his sins, and echoing his own punishment of the Saxons after the First Battle of Langensalza, he dramatically wore a hairshirt and stood in the snow barefoot in the middle of winter in what has become known as the Walk to Canossa.


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