Via Publica from Brussels to Prague

This article deals with a street in Central Europe, of the type via publica of the Roman street , see ibid.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Course of the federal highway 8, largely identical to the Via Publica

The Via Publica ( Volksstrasse , later Poststrasse or Handelsstrasse ) was first mentioned in 839 in a diploma from Emperor Ludwig the Pious . This old road led from Brussels in Flanders via Frankfurt , Würzburg and Nuremberg to Prague in Bohemia .

In the Middle Ages it connected the trading cities of Cologne , Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Regensburg . The Stone Bridge in Regensburg (1135–1146), the Inn Bridge in Passau ( 1143 ), the Lahn Bridge in Limburg ( 1341 completed) and the Main Bridges in Würzburg ( 1133 ), Frankfurt (before 1222 ) and Kitzingen (before 1300 ) are among the oldest stone bridges in Central Europe and testify to the historical importance of this trunk road.

In 1615 , the postmaster general Lamoral von Taxis was commissioned by Emperor Matthias to set up a postal route from Brussels, via Frankfurt and Nuremberg, to Prague. For this purpose, Via Publica was expanded into Poststrasse.

Today, federal road 8 is largely identical to this old road . The mediaeval trade routes mostly did not lead through the swampy valleys, which were impassable after rainfall, but over the dry mountain roads.

Part of the Via Publica is also known as the mouse path .

• 

  Postal rates 1711

• 

  Alte Lahnbrücke in Limburg, here the Via Publica crossed the Lahn

• 

  Main bridge in Würzburg (around 1900)

See also

• Via Regia
• Via Imperii
• Altstrasse
• Reichsstrasse
• Via Carolina