Ortweg

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The Ortweg or Ortveca is an old street whose origins go back to the time of the Celts . It was a trade route that connected the Marburger Land, the Vogelsberg , the Rhön and the historic grave field .

course

The earlier paving of the Ortweg near the Hergottseiche comes to light again (right half of the picture)
The church in Kleinheiligkreuz

According to recent research, the route, coming from the Marburger Land, ran through the northern Wetterau (Wedereiba (1016)) and the Vogelsberg past the Blankenwald Castle . Already in prehistoric times there was a ring wall at the castle site to protect the local path leading past this point, via Hainzell to Kleinheiligkreuz .

The earlier paving of the local road at Kleinheiligkreuz appears again under today's basalt gravel

Here she came to Fulda territory, crossed the Antsanvia northwest of Giesel am Himmelsberg near the "Herrgottseiche"

Herrgottseiche near Giesel

From there they went on to the Fulda valley into Fuldatal past Istergiesel , cell until the provost Johannesberg . The "Alte Heerstraße" ( Reichsstraße from Frankfurt am Main to Leipzig ) coming from Neuhof also met here to cross the river of the same name at Kohlhaus in the northern district of Fulda - Bronnzell via the "Kohlhäuser Bridge".

The path continued along the Bieber , through Langenbieber over the Rhön ( Wasserkuppe and Lange Rhön), where the path led east of the Franconian Saale to the Franconian Königspfalz Salz (probably in the area between Salz and Bad Neustadt an der Saale ). From there the path forked to the Thuringian Forest and as Rennweg or Hohe Straße over the Haßberge into the area around Bamberg .

history

Excavations show that the route was used by the Celts. The route connected important settlement areas ( Oppida , e.g. Milseburg ) of the Celts. The Merovingians also left their mark (e.g. royal court in Fulda and grave fields in the Haßberge ).

The path was first mentioned in writing in Carolingian times. But it was one of the first old streets to be mentioned in a document. The path was mentioned in the Vita Sturmi by the fourth abbot Fuldas Eigil in the late 8th century when Sturmius was looking for a suitable place for the monastery in 744 . The path is said to have been mentioned in the deed of donation (around 744) from Hausmeier Karlmann to Bonifatius, in which he received the land for the Fulda monastery . However, this certificate is no longer preserved.

In 777 , Charlemagne donated the fiscus Hammelburg to the Fulda monastery. This made the Ortweg an important connecting route between the Fulda Abbey and the associated Propstei Hammelburg. The path was also used by the Frankish kings and emperors to get to the Pfalz Salz .

In the following centuries the Rhön became the intersection of three spheres of power that claimed land here. There were disputes between the diocese of Würzburg , the abbey of Fulda and the county of Henneberg . In some areas the road became a border path. Thus the Rhön was bypassed in the east and in the west by the great trade flows (see for example the Antsanvia or Via Regia ). Since then, the road has only had regional significance for trade, as there were no other important points of attraction (e.g. mineral resources) in the Rhön.

literature

  • Franziskus Büll, Regina E. Schwerdtfeger: Germania Benedictina Band. VII: Hessen , St. Ottilien 2004, ISBN 3-8306-7199-7
  • Jochen Heinke: On the way on the streets of our ancestors , Nidderau 2003, ISBN 3-936622-10-8

Web links