How would a musician travel from Venice to Dresden around 1700?

Upvote:-1

The main route would be: Venice, [Mountain crossings], Vienna, Stockerau (north bank of the Danube outside of Vienna), Prague, [Mountain crossing Pass am Geiersberg], Dresden.

These would have been long established trade routes.

  • Alte Dresden-Teplitzer Poststraße
    • through Pass am Geiersberg and Fürstenwalde until 1860
      • pink, left route

No major waterways along the way in 1700.

From Prague, the river Moldau flows north into the Elbe and from there on to Dresden.

Serious planning for a Donau/Moldau/Elbe connection only started in the early 19th century. Most references about the shipping on the Elbe (north of Dresden towards Hamburg) is about the shipping of goods.

Sources:

Upvote:-1

Working from the map posted by @Jan, the route would be:

  • Depart Venice to Laubach (optionally Klagenfurt via Burgo and Brixen);
    The route through Klagenfurt would be inhospitable in winter, but perhaps more scenic in summer.
    enter image description here

  • Depart Laubach for Vienna, via Gratz and Loeben (meeting up with any travelers through Klagenfurt);
    enter image description here

  • Depart Vienna for Linz;
    Linz is the only Danube crossing between Vienna itself and Passau. Crossing at Vienna takes one into Moravia through Olmutz (ie Austerlitz) and then into Silesia via Breslau - a very roundabout route, but possible.
    enter image description here

  • Depart Linz for Prague;
    Shortly after leaving Linz one descends into the Moldau/Vitava river valley, which flows into the Elbe at Prague. This stretch has only ever been intermittently navigable, so travel would have been on foot, horseback, or carriage.
    enter image description here

  • Depart Prague for Dresden;
    One is now simply following the Elbe river valley. The Elbe has always been navigable by commercial vessels as far inland as Prague, according to Wikipedia, so this could be a comfortable downstream river excursion.
    enter image description here

Upvote:2

Here is a roughly contemporary map (from 1727) with postal routes that includes both Venice and Dresden. This does not yet mean your character would actually take any of these routes (e.g. because there were cheaper modes of transportation?) but it might be a start.

Please note that according to the map legend, routes drawn with a single line are for post riders ("reitende Posten") and routes drawn with duplicate lines are for coaches, carts or the like ("fahrende Posten").

More post

Search Posts

Related post