Via Regia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Via Regia means "King's Highway". It is an imperial road and an ancient road. Via Regia, in the usual sense, means not just a specific road, rather a type of road. It was legally associated with the king and remained under special protection. There were many such country roads and military roads in the Holy Roman Empire e.g. the King's road from Menzlin to Wismar in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, the "most significant East-West road in the north" of the medieval west Slavic settlement areas. The best known "Via Regia", with time, came to be called Via Regia itself.
Contents |
[edit] The "Via Regia"
It ran from the Rhine, through Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Gelnhausen, Steinau an der Straße, Neuhof, Fulda, Eisenach, Erfurt, Eckartsberga, Bad Kösen, Naumburg, Leipzig, Grossenhain, Königsbrück, Kamenz, Bautzen, Görlitz and Breslau to Silesia.
It is mentioned for the first time as the "King's Road" (strata regia) in a document of the Marquess Heinrich of Meissen in 1252. Its origins reach back to the 8th and 9th Century. After the downfall of the royal power in central Germany following the Battle of Lucka in 1307 it lost its royal status; from the 14th Century this route could no longer really be spoken of as a "Via Regia".
[edit] The "High Road"
Nevertheless the section of the road between Frankfurt and Leipzig continued to exist under the name "Hohe Straße" ("High Road"). It remained under sovereign control (among others the King of Bohemia in the Upper Lausitz, the Elector of Saxony in Middle Germany, the Abbey of Fulda, the Archdiocese of Mainz and Rhine) and was chartered through tolling. Also the old road between Cologne and Frankfurt via Wetzlar was called "Hohe Straße"/"High road".
The road had a large economic significance for interregional trade and bartering. From the west came the Flemish blankets, from the east wood, pelts, wax and honey, and the middle controlled the German indigo (Isatis tinctoria) of the Thuringian Basin as well as the mining products of Upper Saxony. The Via Regia also provided the direct route between the largest German trade fair cities Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurter Messe) and Leipzig (Leipzig Messe).
Pilgrims, who took part in the Aachen Shrine Pilgrimage used the street in large numbers. Thereto they turned off the trunk road in Eisenach along the "Long Hessen" to Marburg and Cologne. Testimonies of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela are known from Großenhain, Leipzig, Erfurt, Gotha, Vacha, Fulda, Frankfurt on the Main and Mainz.
The road was repeatedly used by armies. Some large battles came to pass in its catchment area (Breitenfeld, Lützen, Rossbach, Hochkirch, Jena and Auerstadt, Bautzen, Großgörschen, Leipzig). After the defeat of Napoleon, the significance of the street faded, since, as a result of the reduction of the Saxon state at the Congress of Vienna, the toll on behalf of Leipzig was no longer continued.
The historical route of the Via Regia is today marked by several national roads: Between Eisenach and Erfurt by National Road 7 (B7) Between Eckartsberga and Leipzig by National Road 87 (B87) Between Leipzig and Görlitz in parts by National Road 6 (B6) In Hanau the Birkenhainer road branches from the Via Regia towards the south, also as a high road.
[edit] Literature
- Ludwig Steinfeld: Chronik einer Straße. Die alte Straße von Frankfurt nach Leipzig; Geschichte, Ereignisse, Reiseberichte. Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar 1994, ISBN 3-89264-360-1
[edit] See also
- Roman Roadways
- Dere Street, Scotland's Via Regia
