The Ox Road (Ochsenstrasse) is a historical land route on which slaughter oxen were driven starting from the Hungarian Danube bend near Gran via Pressburg, Vienna, St. Pölten, Enns, Schärding, Passau and Straubing with a detour to Regensburg and Nuremberg; the route continued via Ochsenfurt and Aschaffenburg to the Rheingau. This route was about 1200 km and was completed in about four months.
Through Bavaria, the Ox Road led from Passau to Straubing, Rinkam, Sünching and Haidenkofen and branched off here to Regensburg or continued via Schierling, Langquaid and Abensberg to the Danube crossing at Pförring.
The reason for this transport was a new fashion that came to Germany towards the end of the High Middle Ages due to trade contacts: eating beef became a status symbol. In the late Middle Ages, however, it was difficult to obtain good meat; local beef came from old cows or oxen at work, whose meat was tough and not very edible. In addition, native cattle were small and not very productive: an ox at that time had a height at withers of only one meter and a slaughter weight of about 200 kg. To meet the increased demand for good ox meat, cattle were imported on a large scale from Hungary. These were imposing steppe cattle with horns almost one meter long and a slaughter weight of up to 800 kg. These animals were very robust, could cover long distances and also quickly gained weight again during a rest.
The old Ochsenstrasse is located behind this row of trees.
Text from the German version of Wikipedia.
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