Two old trading routes in the Gohrischheide
Please note: This page was machine-translated. If anything is unclear, the German version is authoritative.
Mühlberger Straße / Torgauer Straße
Mühlberger Straße and Torgauer Straße, which branches off southeast of the former village of Vorwerk Gohrisch and west of Lichtensee, were two important trade and postal routes as early as the Middle Ages. A description from 1624 indicates that these roads largely ran through dry terrain and were economically accessible in all seasons. On Hohe(n) Straße and Salzstraße, further south, high water levels from the Elbe River were to be expected.
The name Mühlberger Straße remained unchanged throughout all known eras. Torgauer Straße, however, changed its name several times. It was known as Poststraße, Alte Poststraße, Kröbelner Straße, Torgau-Hayner-Straße, and Coßdorfer-Straße, among other names. Mühlberger Straße connected Mühlberg and Großenhain and passed through the towns of Lichtensee, Vorwerk Gohrisch, Altenau, Vorwerk Klein-Trebnitz, and Boragk.
Torgauer Straße connected Dresden and Annaburg, passing through the villages of Lichtensee and Vorwerk Gohrisch before continuing northwest toward Wendisch Borschütz. This explains why the two roads largely follow the same route.
Later in history, both roads lost their importance, so that although they were still used for the transport of goods, they no longer held the significance of an important trade route. Their official civilian use came to a complete end in 1895 when the village of Vorwerk Gohrisch was relocated to Lichtensee. Subsequently, both roads lay within the target area of the newly created artillery firing range and fragments of them can still be seen today in the Gohrischheide and Elbniederterrassen Zeithain nature reserves.
„Die Haynsäule“
Just south of Gohrisch on Torgauer Straße stood a half-mile column (post column) known to local residents as “the old Hayn Column.”
It was erected in 1722 following the order given by the Elector of Saxony on April 12, 1713, to Adam Friedrich Zürner to map the entire territory of Saxony. As was the case throughout Germany, there was still no uniform system of measurement for length in Electoral Saxony. It was customary to use the “Wegstunde” (hour's journey) as a measure of distance. It was only later that Zürner stipulated that the “mittlere Meile” (average mile) should be used for surveying. It had a length of 16,000 Dresden ells – equivalent to 9.062 kilometers.
The Haynsäule stood at this location for 197 years until it was moved from the artillery firing range to its last known location in the park at the command post in the Old Camp in 1919. Today, it is unfortunately considered lost. Napoleon I is said to have changed horses at this spot in 1812 when he traveled to Dresden. The Zeithain farmer Joh. Chr. Bennewitz had to provide the horses at that time. As compensation, he received a Napoleon dor (coin).
Text: Stefan Müller
Photo Haynsäule: SLUB/Deutsche Fotothek, Gustav Kuhfahl (1921) (www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/70214715)