Via Regia - The "High Road"

The "High Road"

Nevertheless the important section of the road between Frankfurt and Leipzig continued to exist under the name Hohe Straße ("High Road"). It remained under sovereign control of e.g. the Bohemian Crown in Upper Lusatia, the Saxon electors, the Abbey of Fulda, as well as the Archbishopric of Mainz and was chartered through tolling. Also the branch-off from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne via Wetzlar was called Hohe Straße.

The road had a large economic significance for interregional trade and bartering. From the west came Flemish blankets, from the east wood, pelts, wax and honey, and the middle section controlled the German indigo (Isatis tinctoria) of the Thuringian Basin as well as the mining products of the Saxon Ore Mountains. The High Road also provided the direct route between the largest German trade fairs of Frankfurt and Leipzig.

Pilgrims, who took part in the Aachen Cathedral shrine pilgrimage used the road in large numbers. Thereto they turned off the trunk road at Eisenach along the "Long Hesse" road to Marburg and Cologne. Testimonies of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela are known from Großenhain, Leipzig, Erfurt, Gotha, Vacha, Fulda, Frankfurt am Main and Mainz.

The road was repeatedly used by armies. Some large battles came to pass in its catchment area (e.g. Breitenfeld 1631, Lützen 1632, Rossbach 1757, Hochkirch 1758, Jena-Auerstedt 1806 as well as the Battles of Bautzen, Lützen (Großgörschen) and Leipzig in 1813). After the final defeat of Napoleon, the significance of the road declined, since, as a result of the reduction of the Kingdom of Saxony by large parts of its Lusatian territories at the Congress of Vienna, the toll on behalf of Leipzig was no longer continued.

Parts of the historic Via Regia route are today marked by major national roads: between Eisenach and Erfurt by the Bundesstraße 7 (B7); between Leipzig and Görlitz by the Bundesstraße 6 (B6) and eastwards to Kraków by the Polish national road 94. In Hanau the Birkenhainer Straße branches off the Via Regia crossing the Spessart mountain range towards Gemünden am Main in Franconia, also as a high road.