6. The Post Distance Pillar

Located by the town's gate or in the vicinity of the town square, post distance pillars were a part of an extensive wayside communication system in Saxony. The distance, the mile, the half a mile and the quarter of a mile pillars were supposed to inform postmen, postmasters and the travellers about distances between specied places as well as the time necessary to cover it. Since the post distance pillars were located in towns of signicant communication function, they were quite sizeable and richly decorated. The replica in Lubań reects an original, designed by Mateusz Daniel Pöppelmann. It is decorated with the coloured coat of arms of Saxony and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, an AR anagram (Augutus Rex), the Polish crown as well as the postal horn. On the south and west wall of the pyramid, there are lists of towns with distances between them and Lubań. The distances are given in German miles (1 mile = 7500 m = 24000 ft). The monument was erected in 1725. The pillar was initially located at the Zgorzelecka Gate. In 1872, it was transferred near the Court and, in 1939, it was relocated to the close vicinity of the 'Sailing-ship House'. After the war pieces of the historic monument had lain strewn at the foot of the ramparts for two years, until they mysteriously disappeared. The modern replica has been erected on the initiative of the Association of Fans of Upper Lusatia.