Alte Poststraße bei Wissen

The Alte Poststraße (Old Post Road) has, as the name suggests, a long and interesting history. Today, many hikers and cyclists use the service road, which leads over scenic ridges along the Sieg. The Alte Poststraße is still one of the most popular routes in Wisserland.

As early as 1615, a postal line led from Frankfurt via Limburg, Gieleroth, Weyerbusch and Siegburg to Cologne. There, or more precisely to Weyerbusch, there was an "access route" from Siegen via Wissen. At first it was letter carriers who made the journey on foot. Later there were post riders with so-called "Felleisen", a sealable and weatherproof letter bag on horseback.

A postage overview of the "Kayser. Majest. Postambts zu Cöln" from 1714 gives evidence of the existence of letter transport to Schönstein near Wissen. The Siegtal was still impassable at this time, and the postal line led through the Wissen district of Brückhöfe, up the Kucksberg via the old "Kirch- und Leichenweg" to Kirchen - the term "post road" was now born for this route. From Kirchen, the route continued via Katzenbach to Siegen.

In 1735, the Imperial Count of Thurn and Taxis established post offices in Siegen and Wissen and at the same time the riding post line from Weyerbusch via Wissen to Siegen. At that time, this postal line led through five (!) independent territories of the old empire: Coming from Weyerbusch, it first went eastwards through the county of Sayn-Hachenburg to the Nister. At Nisterbrück, it reached the Electorate of Schönstein. From Wissen, after crossing the Sieg, it entered the dominion of Wildenburg and reached the dominion of Sayn-Altenkirchen at Kirchen. From Katzenbach, it reached the principality of Nassau-Siegen at Niederschelden and thus also the last customs barrier before Siegen. If you walk or cycle along the idyllic Alte Poststraße today, you can hardly imagine such a thing.

At that time, the journey time for the riding post was about 6 hours from Siegen to Wissen and another 4 hours from here to Weyerbusch. According to a visitation report from 1755, "the roads to Wießen are said to be in very good and usable condition". The route was always feared, for - get this - even around 1830 wolves threatened the riders and stagecoaches and often had to be chased away by rifle shots from the postilion and his companion. There were also raids and looting, and in the area between Kirchen and Siegen, unfortunately, accidents in the form of carriage crashes on the steep banks of the Sieg with several fatalities.

For a long time, ore was also transported by horse-drawn carts along the ridgeway, e.g. from the Wingertshardt mine via Hof Seifen up to the Alte Poststraße and on to Wissen. In Seifen (already mentioned in 1623) there was a so-called "Stippwirtschaft", where the wagoners could stop. Centuries of ore hauling with single-axle carts have left their mark on the hard slate to this day.

In 1835, the construction of the Koblenz-Olper road reached Wissen. It was not until 1843/44 that the state road through the Siegtal was completed. From 1876 onwards it was called Provinzialstraße, today the Bundesstraße B 62. The Alte Poststraße thus lost its importance from a traffic point of view from 1842 onwards - but to this day it remains a walking and hiking route with beautiful views over the Siegtal. The Botanical Trail with its information boards and the Sieg Nature Trail run along parts of the route.