Charlemagne et la Fosse caroline

Charlemagne and the "Carolina trench"

Laboratoire de recherches hydrauliques, hydrologiques et glaciologiques de l'Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Zurich

Abstract

In 793, Charlemagne ordered the digging of a canal, called the "Carolina trench" (Fossa carolina in Latin), to connect the water system of the Main to that of the Danube thereby enabling river navigation between the North Sea and the Black Sea. This canal, which was never completed, constitutes one of the greatest technical achievements of the High Middle Ages. On the occasion of its 1200th anniversary, the results of recent research on its construction, on the reasons which led to the interruption of the work, as well as its importance at the time from an economic, political and military standpoint, were published in Bavaria (see bibliographical references quoted). A glimpse and a few observations concerning this work, the forerunner of the present canal joining the Main and the Danube, are provided in this article.