Feasibility study: „European city and culture tourism – Thuringian ...

Final report, VIA REGIA „European city- and culture tourism“
7 Implementation proposals of a bicycling route for the VIA REGIA along the
corridor of its historical course
The design of offer components along the VIA REGIA with respect to the aspects „people on
the move“ as well as „experiencing cultural heritage along the VIA REGIA“ represents an
approach for the tourism development and marketing in future. Based on the framework of
the mobility, priority is given to the theme bicycle trips and to the thematic level to the
educational- and cultural tourism. The aim is to connect these theme blocks with each other
and to design attractive offer components.
The starting basis to provide mobility along the VIA REGIA might be the long-distance
cycling-hiking trail Thuringian city cluster. It leads from Eisenach over Erfurt and Weimar
through to Altenburg. It corresponds in parts with the historical route of the VIA REGIA, but
is generally oriented along the corridor VIA REGIA. With the Saxon city route (Glauchau,
Chemnitz, Freiberg, Meißen, Dresden, Kamenz, Bautzen, Löbau, Görlitz) there exists also a
cycling trail on the Saxon part, which corresponds with the historical course, resp. the
corridor of the VIA REGIA to some extent. With the inclusion of these both routes, the
realization of a federal state-crossing cycling trail of 565 km length (225 km Thuringia, 340
km Saxony) would be possible and might hence serve as starting basis for the offer
development in the framework of the VIA REGIA. Admittedly, the passage of the both
cycling trails still shows gaps in the route. Especially between the places Schmölln and
Glauchau, the spatial orientation and navigation turns out to be problematic.
Selection of the routes for bicycle tours within the VIA REGIA corridor
The definition of a bicycle route leading exactly along the historical course of the VIA REGIA
is not feasible. Through the years of the temporal development, the routes of roads and
paths have changed and buildings and cities were built on the historical course of the VIA
REGIA. Today, some places have become busy roads (highways, interstate- and country
roads) and this makes a bicycle route impossible.
Thus, the already described contemplation of the corridor for the VIA REGIA applies here,
too. As shown in the images 4 and 5 (Historical course VIA REGIA and bicycle route), it has
been made sure that, besides the possibly short distance to the VIA REGIA, also already
existing cycling trail infrastructure flow into consideration.
In general, it would be best to set the starting point in Eisenach towards east and through to
Weimar when the Thuringian city cluster cycling trail is used. From Weimar, this cycling trail
orients towards east, while the historical course of the VIA REGIA can be found to the northeast.
For this reason, the further route course will, under the use of the Ilmtal cycling trail,
lead towards north-east. This route is divided into four stages, which will be described in
more detail, as follows.
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