Hegereiterbrücke
The Hegereiterbrücke , also known as the Forsthausbrücke , is a bridge over the Weißeritz in Dresden . Erected around 1780, it is considered the oldest preserved stone arch bridge in the Saxon state capital.
description
The Hegereiter bridge is a sandstone - arch bridge with three arches. It is 40 meters long and a good four meters wide and has two massive river pillars . The bridge is a listed building . The Hegereiterbrücke is located in Plauenschen Grund , a very narrow part of the Weißeritztal between Freital and the southwestern Dresden district of Plauen . It is located in the section between the Felsenkeller and the Bienertmühle , below the Hohe Steins . A few meters above there is a bridge on the Dresden – Werdau railway over the Weißeritz, directly below is the historic Weißeritz weir of the Bienertmühle. The southern end belongs to Dölzschen , the northern end is in the district of Plauen.
history
A Weißeritz crossing probably existed at this point as early as the 14th century, probably initially in the form of a ford . A footpath through the Plauenschen Grund was first mentioned in 1560. By then, at the latest, there was probably a wooden bridge at the current location, the first Weißeritz bridge in Plauen's reason. It opened up the narrow valley and served as access to Villa Grassi and the bush mill. The name of the building refers to the Hege - Reiter , a mounted forester who lived in the forester's house built in 1722 right next to the bridge. At first it was called Brücke am Hegereiter .
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Wei%C3%9Feritz_plauen.jpg/220px-Wei%C3%9Feritz_plauen.jpg)
In 1745, the Saxon court approved a request from the residents to build a road through the Plauen reason to Potschappel . As a result, 600 Freiberg miners laid a driveway that was supposed to better connect the mills on the Weißeritz and was soon raised to Poststrasse . The rapidly growing traffic made it necessary to replace the old wooden bridge. From 1779 to 1782, today's sandstone bridge was built, which was equipped with separate walkways on the outside. This makes the Hegereiterbrücke the oldest preserved stone arch bridge in Dresden, 70 years older than the Marienbrücke and 128 years older than the Augustusbrücke, which was rebuilt in 1910. The construction costs amounted to 18,616 thalers.
From 1807 to 1809 the route known as Dresdner Strasse was further expanded to improve the infrastructure for the then growing hard coal mining in the Döhlen basin . For the same reason, the Albertsbahn AG built the railway line near the bridge from 1853 to 1855. Also in the immediate vicinity of the bridge was an abundant site of fossils from the Upper Cretaceous, which was buried during the construction of the railway. Together with the Weißeritz weir, which has existed immediately downstream since 1594, the Hegereiterbrücke formed an ensemble that was a popular motif for landscape painters in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Carl Wilhelm Arldt , Johann Adolph Darnstedt , Johann Gottfried Abraham Frenzel , Anton Graff , Johann Christian Klengel , Ludwig Richter , Gustav Täubert , Johann Friedrich Wizani and Adrian Zingg .
In 1902 tracks of a tram line of the Dresden overland traffic from Löbtau to Hainsberg were laid over the bridge. For this purpose, the northern access ramp was significantly flattened. Also as a result of frequent flood damage, so u. a. In 1897, construction work on the bridge and its access roads was repeatedly necessary. As a result, the road surface in the area of the bridge increased more and more, so that the low side walls soon barely protruded beyond the roadway.
In 1921 the old country road, now known as Tharandter Straße , and with it the tram route, were moved to the left side of the valley and from then on no longer ran over the Hegereiterbrücke. Their importance declined rapidly; henceforth it served mainly as an entrance to the Hegereiterhaus. After it was demolished in 1965, the bridge fell into disrepair until it was finally unusable. The fact that it suffered further damage in the 2002 flood made repairs more and more urgent. In 2006, the Hegereiterbrücke was renovated in accordance with the requirements of historical monuments and re-inaugurated on March 25, 2007 as part of the Bienert hiking trail.
Hegereiterbrücke on paintings and drawings
Plauenscher Grund by Anton Graff (1736–1813): “Plauenscher Grund near Dresden in the evening”, around 1800
Johann Adolph Darnstedt : "View of the granite rocks after the bridge to / from the Buschmühle", 1799
Johann Adolph Darnstedt : "The weir with the bridge and the Hegereuter's apartment to Dresden", 1799
View of the Plauen reason , unknown artist, around 1850
Web links
- dresden.de: Signs for the Weißeritzgrünzug ( memento from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.8 MB)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Paul Dittrich: Between Hofmühle and Heidenschanze. On the history of the Dresden suburbs Plauen and Coschütz. 2nd revised edition, Verlag Adolf Urban, Dresden, 1941, p. 85.
- ^ Henry Lehmann: Dresden's oldest stone arch bridge spans the Weißeritz. In: Dresdner Latest News , ed. April 18, 2011, p. 16.
- ^ Sachsen.de: Hegereiterbrücke in Plauenschen Grund between Dresden and Freital. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ^ Kreidefossilien.de: The "Plauische Grund" between Dresden and Freital. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ↑ dresden.de: Ceremonial handover of the Bienert hiking trail. ( Memento from April 19, 2015 in the archive.today web archive ) Retrieved March 26, 2013.
Coordinates: 51 ° 1 ′ 30 ″ N , 13 ° 42 ′ 4 ″ E