Once you have mastered the challenging ascent along the Höhenweg, you will see the Napoleon Tower on the hill between Ober-Hilbersheim and Sprendlingen. With its signalling arms, it is modelled on a historic telegraph pole and thus attracts the attention of hikers and cyclists from afar. In Napoleonic times, it was used to send the first short messages - the first text messages in history, so to speak - over a distance of around 12 kilometres.
The signalling arms are based on the ‘Chappe system’, which was developed by the Chappe brothers during the French Revolution in France. This telegraph line consisted of a series of signalling towers positioned within sight of each other. By using swivelling signal arms, people were able to generate signs that could be recognised with binoculars from the next tower. In this way, messages could be transmitted faster than with mounted messengers.
Claude Chappe (1763-1805) developed an uncomplicated method for messages that could display all the letters of the alphabet and special characters. This also made it possible to transmit encrypted messages.
In 2014, the Sprendling Napoleon Tower, a popular excursion destination in the Tuscany region of Rheinhessen, was officially opened. The wine table right next to the tower invites you to enjoy the wonderful view and savour delicious Rheinhessen wine over a snack. Some winegrowers also make use of the location for their wine tastings. The freely accessible tower offers impressive 360° views of the Rheingau and the Mainz basin across the hilly Rhine-Hessian countryside to Bad Kreuznach, Donnersberg, Soonwald and Hunsrück.
The Napoleon Tower was given rigid signalling arms for safety reasons. There are directional markings at the top of the tower which show the former locations of the neighbouring towers ‘Hungriger Wolf’ near Bad Kreuznach (towards Metz) and ‘Heidenhof’ near Schwabenhein an der Selz (towards Mainz). From Mainz to Metz, there were 22 railway stations spread over a distance of around 225 kilometres.
200 years after the end of the French telegraph line, the municipality of Sprendlingen-Gensingen and the local Rheinhessen-Zellertal working group supported the reconstruction of the ‘Napoleonsturm’ optical telegraph pole as part of LEADER funding.
