Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 and Building remains southwest of Saalburg

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fortlet Dicker Wald 1

   The Dicker Wald, the thick forest, is a good name for a place where a Roman fortlet once stood among trees. The fortlet was a small post on the Wetterau Limes, the frontier line that curves around the plain north of Frankfurt, and it sat just inside woodland that still covers much of the hill. What you find today are low earthworks and the outline of a small enclosure, but the surrounding forest gives a good sense of the lonely, damp setting soldiers would have known. The Limes was a frontier of watchtowers, small forts and larger garrisons, all linked by a path and a palisade.

   Read the complete Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet Eichkopf.

2. 2. Fortlet Eichkopf

   Deep in the forest on the eastern slopes of the Taunus, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a small fortlet known today as Eichkopf, after the wooded hill on which it stands. It was one of the many minor installations along the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier that separated the Roman Empire from the free Germanic tribes, and it housed a small detachment of soldiers who patrolled the line and manned the nearby watchtowers. The outline of the fortlet is still visible as a low rampart and ditch among the trees, and nearby, the line of the frontier itself, with its bank and ditch, can be traced through the forest. It is part of the World Heritage site of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

   Read the complete Fortlet Eichkopf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Fortlet Eichkopf comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Building remains southwest of Saalburg.

3. 3. Building remains southwest of Saalburg

   If you want to know what a Roman fort on the German frontier really looked like, the Saalburg is the place, and these building remains lie in the forest just southwest of it, part of the civilian and military landscape that grew up around the fort. The Saalburg itself was rebuilt at the beginning of the twentieth century on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Roman history and keen to present the German empire as the heir of Rome. The walls, gates, headquarters building and granaries were reconstructed on the original foundations, based on the archaeology of the time, and today the fort houses a museum full of finds from the frontier, along with workshops, a Roman garden and regular events with reenactors.

   Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Building remains southwest of Saalburg. Next is back through Fortlet Eichkopf.

4. 4. back through Fortlet Eichkopf

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Eichkopf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Fortlet Eichkopf, late in the day. Next is Fortlet Dicker Wald 1.

5. 5. Fortlet Dicker Wald 1

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Fortlet Dicker Wald 1. That is the ride.