Technical data: sandstone; gilding and polychrome; height approx. 430 cm.

Description and history: During the reign of the Wettin dynasty in Poland, great importance was attached to the functioning of communication between Warsaw and Dresden. In order to improve the transmission of correspondence of state importance, a Polish-Saxon post office was established by order of the King of Poland and the Elector of Saxony, Augustus II the Strong (Frederick Augustus I). From 1722, stone distance posts began to be erected along the postal route.

The originator of the postposts in Saxony was Adam Friedrich Zürner (1679-1742), a pastor and at the same time cartographer in Skassa (now a district of the town of Großenhain in Saxony). Appointed geographer to the prince-elector in 1716 as a member of the association of scientists (later the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin), he produced the first postal map in princely Saxony a year later. From 1720 onwards, he worked on a network of stone mileposts, and from 1721 onwards he held the position of Polish (royal) and Saxon (ducal) border commissioner. A. F. Zürner was not only a surveyor and cartographer, but also the author of a "Thorough Guide for the Ordinary Journey from Dresden to Warsaw"

("Kurze Anleitung zur gewöhnlichen Reise von Dreßden nach Warschau"), which was published in 1738.

At that time, postal milepost columns of several types were erected under his supervision and guidance: a distance column, a quarter-mile column, a half-mile column and a mile column - noting that a half-mile postal mile was equal to one hour and a distance of 4,531 metres. The letters 'AR', the monogram of the Latin Augustus Rex (King Augustus), were engraved on each post. In contrast, the more imposing distance poles are decorated to this day with the emblems of the Republic and Saxony, topped by the Polish royal crown. One wall of such a pole used to show the distances to the most important cities and towns along the route. As a curiosity, it is worth mentioning that the sign of the post office - the postillion's trumpet, still used today - was also placed on the posts.

During the reign of the Wettins on the Polish throne, two main routes ran between Poland and Saxony:

the northern one - from Dresden via Königsbrück, Hoyerswerda, Bad Muskau (Polish: Mużakowo), Żary (German: Sorau), Żagań (German: Sagan), Głogów (German: Glogau), Wschowa (German: Fraustadt), Leszno (German: Lissa), Kalisz, Łęczyca and Łowicz to Warsaw

South - from Dresden via Bautzen (pol. Budziszyn), Görlitz, Bolesławiec (pol. Bunzlau), Legnica (pol. Liegnitz), Wrocław (pol. Breslau), Oleśnica (pol. Oels), Syców (pol. Wartenberg), Piotrków Trybunalski and Mszczonów to Warsaw