The Fossa Carolina (or Karlsgraben in German) was a
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...
named after
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...
in what is today the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
state of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
, intended to connect the Swabian Rezat river to the
Altmühl
The Altmühl (, la, Alchmona, Alcmana, Almonus) s.v. is a river in
to the Danube basin). It was created during the early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, long before the
Ludwig Canal
The Ludwig Canal (German: Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal or Ludwigskanal), is an abandoned canal in southern Germany.
The canal linked the Danube River at Kelheim with the Main River at Bamberg, connecting the Danube basin with the Rhine basin. The ...
and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. If it was indeed operational, this canal would have been the first to link the Rhine basin to the Danube basin, across the European Watershed. However, contemporary sources are contradictory as to whether it was ever finished or not.
Geography
Near Treuchtlingen and Weißenburg in Bayern the European Watershed between the rivers of the Rhine basin and those of the Danube basin is very narrow. Only around 2 km of fairly level terrain lie between the Swabian Rezat and the Altmühl.
History
Carolingian sources report that Frankish king
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...
Einhard
Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart; la, E(g)inhardus; 775 – 14 March 840) was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the ''Vita ...
, writing around two decades later, Charlemagne was convinced by "supposed experts" that it would be possible to travel in comfort by ship from Rhine to Danube if the Rezat could be linked to the Altmühl. The king assembled a large number of workers and in person supervised construction in the fall of 793 of a 2,000 step long and 300 feet wide moat. Einhard reports that the project failed due to the marshy ground and continuous rainfall, which caused excavated material to slide back.
But other sources indicate that it was in fact completed and fully operational. The canal may have worked with several ponds, dikes and dams.
It seems that the goal of this work was to improve the transportation of goods between the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
and
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
. Another theory claims that the main purpose was to bring back Charlemagne's war vessels from the Danube to the Rhine.
In the 19th century, the project inspired king
Ludwig I of Bavaria
en, Louis Charles Augustus
, image = Joseph Karl Stieler - King Ludwig I in his Coronation Robes - WGA21796.jpg
, caption = Portrait by Joseph Stieler, 1825
, succession=King of Bavaria
, reign =
, coronation ...
to build the
Ludwig Canal
The Ludwig Canal (German: Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal or Ludwigskanal), is an abandoned canal in southern Germany.
The canal linked the Danube River at Kelheim with the Main River at Bamberg, connecting the Danube basin with the Rhine basin. The ...
, which opened in 1846.
Research
Research by Robert Koch in 1992/3 showed that the floor of the canal was not level, but followed a step-like profile, rising from the direction of the Altmühl towards the north. Koch argued that the canal could have been flooded by damming the Rezat at Dettenheim and that the project could quite possibly have been finished. Geoarcheological work in 2009, however, showed that what had been considered an early medieval dam at Dettenheim was likely only built in the late Middle Ages and did not in fact serve to dam the Rezat.
A DFG research project at the site, started in 2012, is still ongoing. It is part of a project "Ports from Imperial Roman times to the early Middle Ages" and looks at what the original canal may have looked like - and if there are any indications of whether it ever actually linked the two rivers.
Today
Today, only a 500 meter long part of the canal still exists as a water-filled moat. It lies in the municipality of Treuchtlingen in the ''Ortsteil'' known as ''Graben''. The heaps of dug out earth that make up the banks stretch further, totalling around 1,200 m, rising to up to 10 meters in height. To the north a dry section of around 700 meters follows which is still visible in the terrain but has been almost completely leveled.
* Berg-Hobohm, Stefanie, Kopecky-Herrmanns, Britta, ''Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen in der Umgebung des Karlsgrabens (Fossa Carolina)'', In: ''Berichte der Bayerischen Bodendenkmalpflege'', No. 52, 2012, p. 403-18.
* Koch, Robert, ''Fossa Carolina. Neue Erkenntnisse zum Schiffahrtskanal Karls des Großen''. In: Elmshäuser, Konrad (ed.), Häfen, Schiffe, Wasserwege. Zur Schifffahrt des Mittelalters'', Bremerhaven 2002, p. 54-70.
* Leitholdt, Eva, et al., ''Fossa Carolina. The first try to bridge the Central European Watershed - a review, new findings and geoarchaeological challenges'', In: ''Geoarchaeology - an international journal, 27, p. 88-104. Available online at http://www.uni-leipzig.de/geographie/phygeo/files/2010/06/Leitholdt-Zielhofer-et-al.-2012.pdf
{{Authority control
Canals in GermanyWeißenburg-Gunzenhausen