Linzer Steig

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The Linzer climbing referred in a broader sense a medieval network of mule tracks that of salt - depository Linz to Bohemia led, or more precisely the route from Linz via Freistadt to Budweis that the over time Golden Path Passau replaced. In the 19th century, the Budweis – Linz – Gmunden horse-drawn railway took over the function of the Linzer Steig.

Routes

Linz - Haselgraben - Leonfelden

The route through the Haselgraben and further along the Große Rodl and the Vltava was considered the shortest north-south connection to Prague . It was already used by the Celts , who passed their hilltop settlements Oppidum Gründberg near Linz and along the Vltava Oppidum Třísov (near Krummau ), Oppidum Nevězice (near Orlík ), Oppidum Hrazany and Oppidum Závist south of Prague.

On the occasion of the handover of the Wildberg rule to Gundakar von Steyr- Starhemberg in 1198, the Haselgrabenweg was already referred to as the old way ("antiqua via Savinstraze vulgariter appellata").

Along the Haselbach to the Bergsattel in Glasau (at the foot of the Hellmonsödt municipality) there were the following variants:

  • Valley path through the Haselgraben
  • western high path over the Gründberg and the farmhouses with the old names Unterburger, Oberburger, Kirchschlag
  • eastern high path via "Auf der Wies", St. Magdalena, Oberbairing, Oberwinkel, Althellmonsödt

From Glasau there were the following variants of this route:

  • Glasau - Hellmonsödt - Sonnberg - Glassworks - Ortmühle - Leonfelden
  • Glasau - Hellmonsödt - Eckartsbrunn - Habruck - Langbruck - Ortmühle - Leonfelden

From Leonfelden, the salt road, still known today, leads to Rading and Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurt = upper ford), where the Vltava was crossed for the first time, on to Větrná, Branná and Zátoň , where the (lower) ford crosses the right bank of the Vltava to Přídolí (there has been a salt warehouse there since 1231) and to Český Krumlov .

Linz - Zwettl - Leonfelden

In 1154, this Schöfweg (= ship path), known as the "old Nordwaldsteig", was first mentioned in a document. It led from the shipyard in Linz over the Pöstlingberg and the place Lichtenberg into the valley of the Große Rodl. At Schiefegg , it united with a trail coming from Ottensheim and Untergeng . The path between Schiefegg and Zwettl an der Rodl is still called Saumstraß today .

Linz - Schenkenfelden

After crossing the Haselgraben, the following route could be chosen as an alternative to Leonfelden:

Linz - Rohrbach

Linz - Freistadt - Budweis

The route Linz - Steg (= crossing over the Katzbach) - Katzbach - Gallneukirchen - Spattendorf - Trosselsdorf - Schwandtendorf - Galgenau - Freistadt ran over the Trefflinger Pforte and the Gusen - Aist valley. Due to the road constraints imposed in 1359, this route was the main transport route in the future, even if there were repeated disputes with the towns of Leonfelden and Schenkenfelden and with the merchants who wanted to save unauthorized tolls and travel time by bypassing Freistadt. While you only needed 2 days from Linz to Bohemia, you had to calculate up to 6 days via Freistadt (3 days travel time and usually 3 days stacking time).

history

There are no salt deposits in Bohemia, as the old Bohemian massif was never below sea level. For this reason, Bohemia was mainly supplied with salt from the Alpine Fold Mountains.

The Raffelstetten customs regulations of 902/906 regulated the collection of customs and tolls for salt transport in the (now Austrian) Danube region west of Passau. From the marketplaces of Linz, Ebersburg ( Ybbs an der Donau ) and Mautern , the salt was transported north on Schefwegen (routes that led from the ship or to the ship landing site).

On the way back from Bohemia mainly agricultural products (grain, lard, hops, beer, ...) were transported.

Until the 16th century, the Hallein saltworks and thus the Salzburg diocese were the main suppliers of salt to Bohemia. The diocese of Passau, in turn, was the leader in the transport and distribution of the salt. The salt route to Bohemia, first mentioned in 1010 (the term Goldener Steig did not come into being until the 16th century) initially made up the largest share of land transports from salt to Bohemia. In the 13th century, around 1200 horses a week brought salt runners from the salt metropolis of Passau to the main Bohemian trading center, Prachatice .

In response, the Babenberg Duke Leopold VI founded the city of Freistadt around 1225 and the Bohemian King Přemysl Ottokar II founded the royal city of Budweis in 1265 , with which he also wanted to break the domination of the Rosenbergs in southern Bohemia. In 1277, King Rudolf I of the Habsburgs granted Freistadt the general right to lay down and stack . In 1311 Linz received the right to resign only for salt. Duke Rudolf von Habsburg gave Freistadt on August 2, 1364 the road forced by not using the road over Leonfelden to Bohemia - as usual in times of war - allowed. This provision was confirmed by Duke Albrecht on May 9, 1377 and October 7, 1393, and in 1395 the route via Leonfelden was even temporarily closed to all merchant goods.

Creation of the salt monopoly

In the course of time, the Austrian rulers took specific measures in order to gain the profitable salt business of the Salzburg and Passau bishops. To this end, new production facilities have been created, the transport system has been improved, and laws are in place in their own favor.

Measures to increase your own salt production:

  • In 1533 the financial means for the construction of a second brewing pan in Hallstatt were approved.
  • In 1562 new salt deposits were discovered on the Ischler Salzberg , and in 1563 the Mitterberg tunnel in Perneck (municipality of Bad Ischl ) was put into operation.
  • In 1604, the 40-kilometer-long Hallstatt – Ebensee brine pipeline in the Salzkammergut was put into operation, making salt production considerably faster and cheaper.

Logistic measures:

Political changes:

  • After the Battle of Mohács (1526) , due to the marriage of Anna of Bohemia and Hungary to the future Emperor Ferdinand I in Linz, the Kingdom of Bohemia fell to the Habsburgs, which gave them rights of intervention in this area as well.
  • In 1527 the Imperial Chamber Office was established in Vienna as the highest authority for the administration of the salt industry.
  • In 1530 and 1535 it was contractually stipulated that the Archbishops of Salzburg were still allowed to supply Bohemia, but no longer the land above the Enns, with Hallein salt.
  • In 1563, Emperor Ferdinand I issued the 2nd Riformationslibell with which the Habsburgs "nationalized" the salt business. Salt has been removed from the individual defeat privileges. Salt chambers were set up in Budweis, Prachatitz, Klattau (Klatovy) , Winterberg (Vimperk) , Schüttenhofen (Sušice) , Bergreichenstein (Kašperské Hory) , Thein (Týn nad Vltavou) and Krummau, which were subordinate to an administrative authority in Prague. Imperial officials (salt silverers) directed the wholesale trade in salt.
  • In 1602 Krummau passed from the last Rosenberg, Peter Wok, into the possession of the Habsburgs, which eliminated the last, major commercial competitor in Bohemia and the stacking rights from Prachatice to Krummau.

Heyday

With the salt monopoly, the traffic network of the Linzer Steig, together with the feeder from Mauthausen, became the sole transport route for Gmunden salt to Bohemia.

In 1612 Budweis already had five times the toll income compared to the former West Bohemian salt trading center Prachatice. At the end of the 17th century, 120,000 vats of imperial salt were delivered to Bohemia every year.

Around 1800 it took the wagons from the Danube to Budweis and back five days, with around 500 wagons on the move every day.

Horse train

To speed up the transport of salt, the Budweis – Linz – Gmunden horse-drawn railway was built. For the route Linz-Budweis, the horse-drawn railway, with the time-consuming horse changes and evasive maneuvers, required 14 hours, but was significantly faster than the horse-drawn vehicles. In addition, a horse on the rail could handle six to eight times the load weight of a road cart pulled by two horses, and the cost of maintaining the railroad was much lower than maintaining the road. In the short term, the railway construction brought additional income for the Mühlviertel population, but after that the previous services (transport, catering for wagoners and horses, accommodation, wagon and other crafts) were hardly needed anymore. The road network of the Linzer Steig became deserted many times.

traces

Place names such as Geng , Schiefegg (municipality of Eidenberg ) and Saumstraß (municipality of Zwettl an der Rodl ) are reminiscent of the old mule track.

Buildings:

On the Bohemian side of the Linzer Steig, the southern section of today's Czech main road No. 3 ( Silnice I / 3 ) largely follows the old salt trade path. Between Dolní Dvořiště (Unterhaid) and Velešín you can even see the old braking stones in Nažidla (part of the municipality Bujanov ) and Kaplice .

See also

literature

  • Felix Manzenreiter: Mühlviertler Lifelines: Controversial Salt Paths to Bohemia. With special consideration of the 400-year-old salt trade conflict between Freistadt and Leonfelden. Bad Leonfelden 2013.
  • Karl Hohensinner , Peter Wiesinger : Place Name Book of the Province of Upper Austria 10. The place names of the political district Urfahr-Umgebung (Middle Mühlviertel). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Vienna 2006.

Web links

Commons : Linzer Steig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Document: Upper Austrian document book, secular part (540-1399) 1198 VI 30 in the European document archive Monasterium.net .
  2. ↑ a b c Franz Pfeffer: Haselgrabenstrasse in the city of Linz. In: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 1960. Linz 1960, pp. 198, 209, entire article pp. 197–242, pp. 197–230 (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, pp. 231–242, panels I – XII (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  3. ↑ a b Schiefegg was loud Hohensinn 10.1.14.12 as Schefwech first mentioned (= Schiffweg) in the year 1200th
  4. ↑ a b Geng (= passage) was first mentioned in a document according to Hohensinn 10.1.14.8 in 1343.
  5. ↑ a b Saumstrasse was mentioned in a document according to Hohensinn 10.2.2.4 in the years 1198 and 1380.
  6. ↑ Irene Hager, Hans Katzgraber, Stefan Borovits, Gerhard Weichselbaum: The Heidenstein near Eibenstein and its possible uses. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Linz 2016, pp. 209–248 (especially maps on pp. 222, 227, 232), PDF on land-oberoesterreich.gv.at
  7. ↑ Franz Pfeffer: The Treffling Gate. On the historical development of a Mühlviertel landscape. In: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 1962. Linz 1963, pp. 19–22, entire article pp. 11–84, pp. 11–30 (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, pp. 31–60 (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, pp. 61–84, panels I – X (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  8. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 16.
  9. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 36.
  10. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 46.
  11. ^ Heidelinde Dimt: The princely city of Freistadt and its privileges. Mühlviertel catalog for the 1988 national exhibition, p. 330, PDF on ZOBODAT
  12. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 118.
  13. ^ Fritz Koller: The Salzach shipping up to the 16th century. In: Communications from the Society for Regional Studies in Salzburg. Volume 123, Salzburg 1983, p. 11, entire article p. 1–126, PDF on ZOBODAT
  14. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 122.
  15. ^ A b Willibald Katzinger: The salt trade. White gold from the Kammergut in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  16. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 140.
  17. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 160.
  18. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 182.
  19. ↑ Manzenreiter p. 183.