In this corner of Franconia, the Roman frontier is a straight line. From the Danube near Eining the Raetian Limes ran north and then swung west across a quiet landscape of low hills and fields, and in the section near Wassertrudingen, the line is as ruler-straight as anything the Romans ever built. Here the frontier was a stone wall, unlike the timber palisade further north, and it ran between towers numbered by archaeologists. The group 13/37 to 13/40 is a short stretch of that wall and its watchtowers.
The wall was built in the early third century, and its purpose has long been debated. It could not stop a determined army, but it controlled trade and movement, and it let the Romans watch for raiders. Local people later called it the Devil's Wall, because they thought nobody but the devil could have built something so long and straight. It was abandoned in the middle of the third century, when the Alamanni overran the area, and the stones were reused for farms and churches. UNESCO listed the Limes in 2005.
What remains is a low bank of rubble in the fields and woods, and the foundations of the towers. The landscape is gentle, with cereal fields, meadows and patches of pine, and a few hills like the Hesselberg, the highest point in the area, rise in the distance. Villages are small and farm based, with brick and half-timbered houses, and the roads between them are quiet and well surfaced. Traffic is light, and the bends are mild.
Wassertrudingen has about six thousand people and fuel, a bakery and a couple of inns, and Gunzenhausen, a bit further, is a larger town with everything you need. The region produces carp from small ponds, and local menus often feature it, along with Franconian beer and sausages. Weather is moderate, with warm summers and cold winters, and in spring the rapeseed fields glow yellow. Take a walk along the line of the wall, and think about the soldiers who stood on this low ridge looking north into country that offered nothing but trouble.