The Brabant Road (German: Brabanter Straße), Cologne to Leipzig Road (Köln-Leipziger Straße) or Liege Road (Lütticher Straße) is an ancient road which, during the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, was one of the most important continental east-west oriented military and trade routes. It ran from the eponymous Duchy of Brabant to Leipzig.

History

The road linked the two major north-south routes, the Rhine Road (Rheinstraße) on the eastern side of the Rhine valley and the Wine Road (Weinstraße), which ran along the western slopes of the Wetterau hills from Frankfurt northwards.^{[Anm 1]} Even in prehistory and early history it could have been of importance. As a ridgeway (in places a high sunken road) the route avoided boggy valleys and river crossings and the bridge tolls raised at that time.

In the 16th century, a street was called Cologne Road (Kölner Straße), which dates back to the Franconian conquest and can be regarded as a guideline for the emergence of the two Hessian monasteries at Fulda and Hersfeld. After this phase, it played an important role in the attempt by the Salians to increase the imperial estates in the Harz and Saxony. Finally, the Hohenstaufen rulers wanted to make the Ringgau, with Boyneburg castle, an imperial state and relied on the support of the Thuringian landgraves, for which this road became just as important for the administration of the Mainz territories in Thuringia. Last but not least, it was sufficiently important to the Erfurt's lines of communication that it found its way into the Erfurter Meilenscheibe and the Interiarien of the 17th century.^[1]

Outside the cities, the road ran largely away from settlements along the longer east-western watershed on its ridge or parallel to the slope. Except in the cities and on bridges it was unpaved, it was a "natural road" and its condition was accordingly rudimentary. If the way was damaged by traffic, it was bypassed. This resulted in fan-like and meandering paths. Bad, unpaved roads were also a source of income for the respective lord of the manor, since, in accordance with customary law (de:Grundruhrrecht), all goods that touched the ground in the event of a broken wheel/axle, when a train animal fell or because of a bad route belonged to him. With the foundation of the Hanseatic League, the merchants tried to counteract this claim.

As early as 1255 it was called a strata publica (= "public road"). In 1265, Landgravine Sophie expressly charged the castellans (Burgmannen) of her castle at Blankenstein (Gladenbach) with the protection of this public road within their area of influence. The road connected the former Duchy of Brabant in today's Belgium with Leipzig, running via Cologne, Siegen, Angelburg, Marburg, Eisenach, Erfurt and Naumburg. This medieval street, which connected important trade fair sites, carried a large proportion of east-west trade, especially grain, textile products from Flemish and Lower German textile centres, woad from Thuringia, eastern European furs (the trading centre of which was Leipzig) as well as ironware from the northwestern Lahn-Dill region (Dietzhölzetal),^[2] the Siegerland, the Thuringian Forest.^{[Anm 2]} At times, the livestock trade (horses and cattle) was significant. A transport network for herrings and salted cod had already been established in the Hanseatic era. Hops and beer were also valued as profitable commodities. The procurement of special building blocks (sintered limestones for about 130 capitals at the palas) from the Eifel region is documented for the Wartburg in the 12th century.^[3] Armies, pilgrims and travellers used the road all year round.

Today, the Brabant Road is part of the "European Cultural Route VIA REGIA", which brings together the historic streets of the Brabant Raad, the Way of St James and the actual Via Regia.

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