History of the VIA REGIA (an essay)
When considering traffic movements within the continent, east-west (or west-east) movements have always played a decisive role in the cultural and economic development of Europe. In the area that is still considered one of the most important transport axes in Europe today as the "Pan-European Transport Corridor III," frequent migration movements from east to west have been documented as early as the Stone Age. The reason: The route was comparatively easy to navigate – north of the low mountain ranges and south of the Ice Age zone. However, cities, roads, long-distance trade, and pilgrimages were far from being discussed at that time.
Roman times were already of great importance for the development of a real transport connection to the east. Around the turn of the millennium, there were paved roads connecting the present-day cities of Bordeaux, Poitiers, Tours, Orléans, Paris, Reims, Metz, Saarbrücken, and Kaiserslautern to Mainz, which remained in use for centuries.
In the 1st century BC, the Roman general Drusus marched east from Mainz (Moguntiacum) toward the Elbe, from which a relatively stable road connection subsequently developed. Since Drusus is said to have defeated the Chatti tribe on his campaign, it can be assumed that he reached the Elbe through the Wetterau region, the Hessian Rhön, through Thuringia, and along the Saale. Roman traders must have used this route repeatedly, which provides some outlines for the course of the later VIA REGIA.
The Roman road connection continued to be used during the Frankish Empire. After the death of the Frankish king Clovis, his empire was divided among his four sons, who established four sub-kingdoms. Their capitals were present-day Orléans, Paris, Soissons, and Reims, connected by roads dating back to Roman times.
From his capital Soissons, Clotaire conquered the Kingdom of Thuringia in the 6th century in alliance with his brother Theuderic, who ruled in Reims. It is likely that the Franks used the existing transport routes for their military campaigns and subsequently stabilized the road connections to the east, when large parts of present-day central Germany remained Frankish territory until the 10th century.
For the period between the 8th and 10th centuries, there are a number of reports and finds that also document exchanges between the Frankish Empire and the Slavic territories. The route to the east was protected by Slavic ramparts and castles, on whose sites cities often later emerged. In particular, Jewish long-distance traders, some of whom can be assumed to have come from Arab-occupied Spain, are documented as far as the Krakow area.
After the Golden Horde destroyed Kyiv in 1241, the city was depopulated for a long time and lost its importance as a European metropolis and thus also as a prominent tourist destination for centuries. However, it should be remembered that this now traditional route led beyond Kyiv through the khanates of the Golden Horde to the Far East, from where coveted luxury goods also found their way westward via the Via Regia axis. The further development of the road is linked to the elevation of Kraków to the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, the multicultural development of the Silesian cities, and the conquest of Galicia by the Polish King Kazimierz Wielki. The oldest cities of the Carpathian Foothills were established in the border region of the Sandom Lowland with the Carpathian Foothills, through which the most important European west-east route has long run. These include Rzeszów, Lancut, Przeworsk, Jaroslaw, and Przemysl.
Markets and long-distance trade have been crucial to Europe's vitality since the Middle Ages. The market towns along the Via Regia provide a special testament to the importance of this road for European development.
This applies to the well-known medieval German market towns such as Frankfurt am Main, Erfurt, Naumburg, and Leipzig, but above all also to trading centers such as the large markets of Verdun, which took place between the 8th and 11th centuries. Due to good relations with Moorish Spain, the largest slave market in Europe was held in the 9th century, with the "goods" coming largely from Slavic territories; the Champagne fairs, whose heyday was in the 12th and 13th centuries and for which participation by traders from the East is documented; or the annual fairs in Jaroslaw in eastern Poland, through which most of the oriental spices transported overland to Western Europe were traded until the 16th century.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries, devastating wars in many parts of Europe led to a general decline of cities, a decline in long-distance trade, and the deterioration of road systems. Furthermore, new centers of power of European importance emerged over time, such as Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow, which guided the further development of transportation, so that the Via Regia lost its dominant role as an east-west land connection in Europe. Nevertheless, it remained one of the most important European roads to the east of the continent. At the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon had the "Grand Route Impériale" built from Paris to Mainz, possibly the most modern road in Europe at the time. From there, he and his armies marched eastward, and after the Battle of Leipzig, back to Paris.
The results of the Congress of Vienna and the resulting fragmentation of Europe, as well as the invention of the railway, caused the VIA REGIA to sink into insignificance in the 19th century.
With the invention of the automobile, it had to meet new traffic requirements in order to be usable. The development of a new VIA REGIA in the form of motorways only began towards the end of the 1930s. The outbreak of World War II meant that work on the road could only be carried out to a very limited extent. When construction was finally halted in 1943, the route in Central Germany was completed (partially still single-lane), with the exception of a few valley viaducts that had to be bypassed, and was thus usable by the military.
The consequences of World War II, the division of Germany and Europe, also divided the famous road that had previously connected Western and Eastern Europe into economically and politically separate camps. Europe as a whole was no longer accessible via this route. The term East-West took on a completely new meaning in the history of the continent during those decades.
The VIA REGIA has been almost completely forgotten. Its symbolism as a connecting link between European countries was considered taboo in the Eastern European states.
Developments in recent years have deepened the integration process of the European Union, the opening of Eastern European states, and the liberalization of world trade. Changing political conditions, the emergence of new production systems, the expansion of procurement radiuses, and the expansion of sales markets are also impacting the transport system. The renewal of the VIA REGIA is of enormous importance for European integration. This connection plays a particularly significant economic role for the Polish metropolitan areas in the south of the country. The A4, which essentially still follows the historic route of the VIA REGIA, is the most important road connection between Germany and the coal-mining and industrial regions of Poland. It is to be extended to the Ukrainian border to facilitate transit traffic from Western Europe to Ukraine and southern Russia.
Much work remains to be done at the level of the VIA REGIA as a cultural route of the Council of Europe. In addition to the task of further developing and expanding the VIA REGIA network and a current definition of its objectives, further research into the history of the road remains essential. This concerns, on the one hand, local historical clarifications and corrections to the routes in the respective regions, but also further exploration of larger contexts. Currently, the significance and specific route of the route from Krakow via Prague and Regensburg further west remain unclear.
