Saalburg Pass
| Saalburg Pass | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Saalburg |
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| Compass direction | north | south | |
| Pass height | 414 m above sea level NHN | ||
| state | Hesse | ||
| Valley locations | Usingen | Bad Homburg vor der Höhe | |
| expansion | B 456 | ||
| Built | 1817 | ||
| Mountains | Hochtaunus | ||
| Map (Hessen) | |||
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| Coordinates | 50 ° 16 ′ 19 ″ N , 8 ° 34 ′ 11 ″ E | ||
The Saalburg Pass ( 414 m above sea level ) is the most easterly and probably best-known pass over the Taunus ridge . Its fame results from the Saalburg Roman fort , which secured the transition in Roman times, was partially reconstructed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and is a tourist attraction. Today the pass connects the district town of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe with the former district town of Usingen , the B 456 runs over it.
geography
The Taunushauptkamm represents the natural border between Vordertaunus and Hintertaunus . This separated the Roman Empire from the non-Roman Germania, the Landgraviate Hessen-Homburg from Nassau and finally the Obertaunuskreis from the Landkreis Usingen . The political border function only ended with the establishment of the Hochtaunuskreis in 1972. At 414 meters high, the Saalburg Pass is the lowest crossing of the eastern Taunus. The difference in altitude on the Bad Homburg side from the Kirdorfer Bach to the summit is approx. 200 meters. On the Wehrheim side, the difference in altitude from the Erlenbach to the summit is less at around 120 meters. The neighboring mountains (in the east the Gickelskopf , in the west the Bleibeskopf ) tower over the pass by about 60 meters.
Historical connections
Even if the top of the pass is the common point of all roads, very different routes have been used for the approach over the millennia. The choice of the route was mainly determined by considerations to adapt the gradient to the transport technology and the road technology.
Prehistoric time
The prehistoric Lindenweg , which has now almost disappeared , ran from the Nidda estuary near Frankfurt-Höchst straight to the Taunushöhe. About 300 meters east of the Hirschgarten , this old road crossed the Heuchelbach and led in a straight line up to the top of the pass. This route led to the slight gradient of 1.6%. On the Gickelskopf and the Bleibeskopf there are prehistoric ramparts , which presumably served to secure the crossing.
Roman time
The Romans connected the Saalburg fort with the Roman city of Nida via Saalburgstrasse . This road layout had a considerable gradient of 6.7%. The reason for choosing this route was that the Romans built the road straight, on the shortest route between town and Kastel, in order to ensure that troops could be moved as quickly as possible. In order to be able to use the road despite the incline, a durable stone road structure was necessary. This was a major innovation on the Roman road .
Beyond the Roman border , the connection led to the area in front of the border system, which was not directly under Roman rule. A trade route to Germania ran over this connection .
middle Ages
With the withdrawal of the Romans from Germania, Saalburgstrasse was still used, but the organization to maintain the street was lacking. The road therefore increasingly fell into disrepair. After the route was no longer passable, a second parallel path formed, the Hammelhansweg. It was no longer a paved road, but a dirt road.
In addition, a number of further stretches were formed, which start from the Kirdorfer Bach to Fahrborn and meet there with the Rotlaufweg. To this day, parallel ravines can be seen in this area, pointing in a north-south direction up the mountain.
The reason for these many stretches of road is that the carts, especially in wet weather, created deep ravines on the unpaved roads over the years. Mud holes formed in the depressions that obstructed the carts. If a stretch had become impassable, it was bypassed and a new path was found. This created a system of parallel paths over the centuries.
Rotlaufweg
Another important route over the pass was the Rotlaufweg. It still leads today as a dirt road from Gonzenheim over the Hardtwald to Fahrborn (the Fahrborn is a dried up well. Between 1827 and 1866 the place Dillingen was supplied with water from here by means of a water pipe.) And from there parallel to today's federal road. The gradient of this path from Gonzenheim to the main road is about 2% and then 4.7%. The path is first mentioned in 1539 as the "Troner Weg". It represented the border of the Seulberger Mark and the Hohen Mark .
Paths on the north side of the pass
Archaeologically, there are three main routes from the Saalburg north to the Usinger Land. The Saalburg fort is not built in a north-south direction, but forms the extension of Saalburgstrasse. Corresponding to the south-south-east entrance, which led to Saalburgstrasse, there was the north-north-west exit. It is therefore plausible to use the extension of Saalburgstrasse to the north-north-west. However, there are only limited archaeological findings for this.
One stretch that was used intensively in any case was the road from the fort to Obernhain . This road has an incline of 3.9% and was a popular route in the Middle Ages. In 1972 an Obernhain turnpike was mentioned in a document. The road was the main access road to Obernhain until the 1990s, but was closed to car traffic when the Obernhain bypass was built and is now a cycle path.
Between the two routes lay the Drusenküppel , a medieval moth . This castle complex surely also served to secure the Saalburg Pass.
The main route in the Middle Ages was the “Throner Straße”, which corresponds to today's federal road. Wehrheim has been known in documents since 1046, and the Thron Monastery was founded in 1243. The road has a gradient of 6.4%. As on the Vordertaunus side, a system of parallel paths with branches to the monastery developed.
Early modern age
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the road conditions between Bad Homburg and the Usinger Land were poor. Up until the time of the Napoleonic Wars , expansion was also hindered by the fact that the connection crossed the border between Nassau-Usingen and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Homburg . However, the Landgraviate 1802 to 1810 built a Chaussée of Homburg to Dornholzhausen .
Today's street
construction
In 1816 the government of the Duchy of Nassau took the initiative and planned the construction of a paved road, today's B 456, from Weilburg via Usingen to Homburg. In a letter dated August 23, 1816 to the landgrave government, Nassau declared its determination to build and solicited Homburg participation, which was then also promised. The route was laid out in the form of a kinked route that led from Dornholzhausen to the folding rule and from there to the Saalburg. This route was longer compared to the old Roman road, but it reduced the gradient.
The construction was carried out in 1817. The work was carried out on both sides by subjects who had to do labor. In Homburg, the work was under the direction of the Chaussée director, forest master Franz Lotz. The extent of the compulsory labor of the individual communities was based on the ordinance on Chaussée administration of September 12, 1809. Especially after the hunger winter of 1816/17 , the construction was a heavy burden for the population.
After the construction of the pass road in 1817, construction continued in Nassau. However, this took time. In 1829 they had come to Grävenwiesbach and in 1836 Weilburg was attached.
Saalburgbahn
From 1900 to 1935 the Saalburgbahn , a section of the Bad Homburg tram , ran parallel to the west of Saalburgstraße, mostly on its own track, from Dornholzhausen to just before the pass at the Saalburg. This line went into operation on June 3, 1900 and had a gradient of up to 1:18 (almost six percent) , which is considerable for trams . The reception building of the terminus below the Saalburg was at the apex of the turning loop there . It was extensively restored in terms of monument conservation in 2005 , is now used for beekeeping and is not open to the public. The Saalburgbahn stopped operating on July 31, 1935.
Bus connection
August 1, 1949, was Kraftpost line Bad Homburg Saalburg commissioned and extended on December 4, 1949 to Oberhain. In 1950 the line was taken over by the Deutsche Bundesbahn and operated as route 5930 (Bad Homburg, Saalburg, Wehrheim, Anspach, Usingen, Grävenwiesbach, Weilburg). Although this line could be operated cost-covering (which is extremely rare in public transport in Germany), the line was shut down with the commissioning of the Taunusbahn in 1992 to avoid cannibalizing both connections. The Bad Homburg city bus line 5 currently runs from the city's train station to the Saalburgkastell.
post war period
In the period after the Second World War , the volume of private traffic increased massively. In the 1960s, the road was expanded to three lanes (2 lanes uphill and one downhill). At the top of the pass it was moved away from the Saalburg. The old street still exists today and serves as a parking lot for visitors to the Saalburg.
The Saalburghöhe continues to be a bottleneck - especially in rush hour traffic - which often leads to traffic jams . 27,000 vehicles pass through the pass every day. An expansion has therefore been discussed since the 1970s without a solution being found. The narrowing at the summit could be solved by a four-lane expansion, which is excluded for cost reasons. A release of 2 lanes each in the direction of rush hour traffic , controlled by changing light traffic systems , is only possible in Germany under restrictive conditions and was also not implemented. To improve the flow of traffic, speed limits were introduced at the top. These are monitored by stationary measuring systems.
literature
- Günter Heupke: Over the height - history of Saalburgstraße . In: Yearbook of the Hochtaunuskreis 2002. ISBN 3-7973-0784-5 , pp. 144–151.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermin Herr: Lexicon from the High Taunus. 1993, ISBN 3-7829-0437-0 , p. 29.
- ^ Walter Söhnlein: The traffic development of the district area since the 19th century. In: Ingrid Berg: Heimat Hochtaunus. 1988, ISBN 3-7829-0375-7 , p. 664.