Fort Schrenzer and Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
74 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 21
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
74 km from Butzbach to Butzbach, about 1 h 21 of riding. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber, Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82 and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fort Schrenzer
Butzbach sits at the northern edge of the Wetterau, a broad, fertile plain north of Frankfurt, where the Taunus ends and the land opens out into fields of wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed. The Romans prized this land, and their frontier made a long detour around it, swinging east and then south to include the Wetterau within the empire. Near Butzbach, on the Schrenzer hill, they built a small fort, the Kastell Schrenzer, to guard the frontier where it left the Taunus and began its loop around the plain. The fort and the frontier nearby are part of the frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and the remains, low earthworks in the woods, can be visited on foot.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort Schrenzer is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber.
2. Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber
Friedberg's castle stands on a basalt ridge above the Wetterau, a walled enclosure so large it is almost a town of its own, with a tall round tower, the Adolfsturm, rising above the trees. What most visitors walking through the castle gate do not know is that they are standing on a Roman fort. The legions chose this same ridge in the first century AD, and a fort with a civil settlement grew up here, linked by road to the Limes a few kilometres to the north and west.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82.
3. Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82
Between two neighbouring watchtowers the Romans left a short piece of frontier that today looks like almost nothing, and that is part of its charm. The line between Wachtposten 4/81 and 4/82 runs through the fields of the Wetterau east of Frankfurt, close to Echzell, where the earth wall and ditch of the Limes can still be traced as a long, low swelling in the farmland, sometimes crowned by a hedge or a row of trees that have grown on it. Beneath the field, archaeologists have found postholes of the palisade, which stood about three metres high and was made of split oak trunks.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Fort Schrenzer. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Fort Schrenzer to Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber
Fort Schrenzer → Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber to Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber → Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82 to back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber
Limessection between WP 4/81 and 4/82 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber to Fort Schrenzer
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber → Fort Schrenzer is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.