c. From Metz to Mannheim and Mayence.
By Railway in 7½ hrs.; fares from Metz to Forbach 11 fr. 65, 8 fr. 65,
6 fr. 95 c.; from Forbach to Ludwigshafen (Mannheim) 6 fl. 37, 4 fl. 9,
2 fl. 51 kr.
An undulating, agricultural district is traversed between Metz
and Forbach, and several unimportant stations are passed.
At St. Avold the line enters a forest; the red sandstone
imparts greater variety to the landscape.
Hombourg lies picturesquely on an isolated eminence, which
has procured for the place the epithet of "la guérite du monde".
The cuttings through the wooded mountains beyond Hombourg
afford a survey of the strata of the red sandstone.
Forbach is the last French station, where those entering
France undergo the usual custom-house formalities. Carriages are
changed here. Soon after the station is quitted several smelting
furnaces are perceived on the r., and the coal-district is entered.
The frontier is crossed, and the train descends to the Saar, which
it crosses, and soon reaches
Saarbrücken (Post), the first Prussian station, and seat of
the custom-house officials. — Arnual, in the vicinity, possesses
a fine Gothic church of 1315, containing an admirable font and
very interesting ancient monuments of the princely family of
Nassau-Saarbrücken.
(Railway to Trèves in 3 hrs. From Trèves to Coblenz by
steamboat in 10—12 hrs., comp. Baedeker's Rhine.)
The long series of furnaces near Duttweiler are situated in
the midst of a most valuable coal-district, which in almost its
entire extent belongs to the Prussian government, and is the
seat of numerous industrial establishments in the vicinity of the
following stations Sulzbach, Friedrichsthal and Neunkirchen. The
cuttings through the rocky and wooded mountains frequently
display the stratification of the coal. Between the two last
stations a tunnel 500 yds. in length.
At Neunkirchen the Rhine-Nahe Railway diverges to Creuznach
and Bingen (Coblenz), see p. 269.
At Bexbach, where the Bavarian Palatinate commences, the
country becomes flat. To the r. a pleasing survey of the green
dale watered by the Bexbach.
Homburg is a small town with a handsome modern church.
It was once fortified, but was dismantled in consequence of the
Peace of Westphalia. In 1705 it was re-fortified by the French,
but again destroyed in 1714 after the Peace of Baden. The
castle of
Carlsberg, situated on an eminence 1½ M. from the
town, erected in 1780 by Duke Charles II. of Zweibrücken,
was destroyed by the French in 1793.
The line now skirts a chain of wooded hills and passes two
small stations.
Landstuhl was once the seat of the Sickingen family, whose
ruined stronghold, with walls 24 ft. in thickness, rises above the
village. Francis von Sickingen was here besieged by the electors
of the Palatinate and Trèves and killed, May 7th, 1523, by a
falling beam.
Kaiserslautern (Cygne) is one of the most considerable towns
of the Palatinate. The site of a magnificent palace erected here
by the emp. Frederick I. (Barbarossa) in 1153, destroyed in the
Spanish War of Succession, is now occupied by a modern house
of correction. The handsome corn-exchange was built in 1846.
A monument in the churchyard is sacred to the memory of
soldiers of Napoleon who were natives of Kaiserslautern. The
ancient Protestant church, with its three towers, said to have
been also founded by Frederick I., is one of the most conspicuous
edifices.
The line soon enters the Haardt Mountains and descends in
the picturesque and wooded valley of the Speierbach to the
plain of the Rhine, 100 ft. lower. Within a short distance 12
tunnels here penetrate the variegated sandstone rock, the first
of which (1500 yds. long) is the longest. Each tunnel is
furnished with a species of portal.
At Neustadt (Löwe, at the station; Schiff; Krone) the line
reaches the plain of the Rhine. This is the principal town of
the Haardt Mts., and was founded by the Counts Palatine, several
monuments to whom are preserved in the handsome church,
erected about the middle of the 14th cent.
On an eminence about 1000 ft. in height, 3 M. to the S.
of Neustadt, rises the Maxburg, a still unfinished castle erected
by king Max II. of Bavaria when crown-prince, on the site of
the former castle of Hambach.
To the l. near Neustadt, half-way up the hill, lies the Haardter
Schlösschen (the ancient castle of Winzingen), the ivy-clad ruins
of which are converted into picturesque grounds.
The line then traverses extensive vineyards and tobacco-fields.
At Schifferstadt a line diverges to Speyer (15 min.). Then
Ludwigshafen (Deutsches Haus), a small well-built town of
recent origin, connected with Mannheim (European Hotel on the
Rhine; Palatinate Hotel, German Hotel in the town) by a bridge
of boats.
Cab from the station at Ludwigshafen to that of Mannheim
a drive of 20 min., 1—2 pers. 45 kr., 3 pers. 1 fl., 4 pers.
1 fl. 12 kr.
From Ludwigshafen in 2 hrs. to Mayence (Rhenish, Dutch
and English Hotels), comp. Baedeker's Rhine.
