Bundesautobahn 17

The Bundesautobahn 17 runs south from Dresden through the eastern Ore Mountains to the Czech border at Breitenau, where it links seamlessly with the Czech D8 toward Prague. Construction began in 1998 and the last section opened on 21 December 2006 - one of Germany's most ambitious motorway projects since reunification, with numerous tunnels and viaducts cut into the tight sandstone terrain of the Eastern Ore Mountains. The road created the first direct expressway between Saxony and Bohemia after 1989 and cut the Dresden-Prague journey to about two hours, visibly boosting tourism in both directions.