Final answer:
In the Middle Ages, people embarked on pilgrimages to reach religious shrines like Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem, to fulfill acts of piety, and to venerate sacred relics believed to bring them closer to God.
Step-by-step explanation:
When people in the Middle Ages took part in pilgrimages across Europe, they were primarily traveling to reach religious shrines. One of the key motivations for these pilgrimages was to visit sacred sites containing relics of the saints, which were believed to have special powers. For many Christian faithful, the ultimate pilgrimage destination was the Holy City of Jerusalem, where they sought to walk the ground where Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
Pilgrimages also offered the ordinary person a rare chance to travel and see the world, meet people, and engage in acts of piety with the hope of ensuring salvation. Notable pilgrimage sites included Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the relics of Saint James were venerated, leading pilgrims to carry a symbol of a scalloped shell representative of their journey. Although primarily a devotional act, pilgrimages also had social and sometimes penitential dimensions, such as criminals traveling the 'Way of Saint James' as an act of penance.