Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur and Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur

   For a stretch of about fifty kilometres the Romans let the River Main do the work of a wall. Between Miltenberg and Grosskrotzenburg, the frontier of the Upper Germanic Limes followed the river instead of running as a palisade across country, and a chain of forts sat along its west bank. Trennfurt, a village now part of Klingenberg am Main, was one of them: a fort with its civilian settlement, the vicus, where traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families lived. It is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and as with many Limes sites, most of what survives lies under fields and gardens rather than standing proud.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is where the day begins. Next is Ruine Altenmuster.

2. 2. Ruine Altenmuster

   Lorsch Abbey, founded in the eighth century, became one of the most powerful monasteries of the Carolingian empire, with vast estates, a famous library and the patronage of Charlemagne himself. Its first home, however, was not on the site of the later abbey, but a short distance away, on an island in the Weschnitz river, a place known as Altenmünster, the old minster. The ruins of that first foundation, a few low walls in a meadow, are a quiet counterpoint to the abbey's most famous building, the Torhalle, a gatehouse with a façade of red and white stone panels, one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture. The abbey and Altenmünster together have been on the UNESCO list since 1991.

   Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ruine Altenmuster comes up about 116 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz.

3. 3. Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz

   Some of the gravestones on the sandy rise known in Mainz as the Judensand are close to a thousand years old. The oldest dated stone here goes back to the middle of the eleventh century, which makes this one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Together with sites in Speyer and Worms, Mainz formed the ShUM communities, centres of learning on the Rhine whose scholars shaped Ashkenazi Judaism for centuries, and in 2021 the three were listed together as a World Heritage Site. Mainz was Magenza in Hebrew, home to rabbis whose rulings were followed far beyond the Rhineland.

   Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 180 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz. Next is back through Ruine Altenmuster.

4. 4. back through Ruine Altenmuster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ruine Altenmuster, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.

5. 5. Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur. That is the ride.