Location: North- West of Bad Homburg, Hesse Map
Constructed: 90 AD
March- Oct: 9am- 6pm daily
Nov- Feb: 9am- 4pm Tue- Sun
Entrance fee: EUR 5
The Saalburg fort is a former fort of the Roman Limes on the Taunus
ridge north-west of Bad Homburg. The cohort fort is located
immediately west of today's federal highway 456, about halfway
between the town of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and the community of
Wehrheim in the Hochtaunus district. It is considered to be the
best-researched and most completely reconstructed fort of the Upper
Germanic-Raetian Limes, which has had UNESCO World Heritage status
since 2005.
The Saalburg is one of two houses of the
Archaeological State Museum of Hesse (ALMhessen). In addition to an
archaeological museum, an archaeological park and a research center
belong to the Saalburg. The museum acts as the central Hessian state
museum for the archeology of the Roman provinces and also houses the
central Limes information center for Hesse. The focus of the
research center is accordingly in the field of provincial Roman
archaeology.
The Saalburg Castle is around 418 m above sea level. NHN on the
Taunus ridge leading from WSW to ENE. Even in prehistoric times, trade
routes, such as the Lindenweg (also known as Linienweg) leading from the
Nidda estuary near Frankfurt-Höchst, led from the Rhine-Main plain over
the small mountain saddle on this Taunus ridge, the so-called Saalburg
Pass, which is still the same today uses the federal highway 456 to
cross the Taunus, into the Usinger basin, which has been relatively
densely populated since the Linear Pottery era. Of
transport-geographical importance almost always meant of strategic
importance, so it is not surprising that as early as the time of the
Chatten Wars (83 to 85) of Emperor Domitian (81-96) two simple
earthworks (so-called redoubts A and B, located between the restored
fort and today's main road) were built by the Roman troops to secure
this Taunus pass.
Today, the site, formerly used by the military,
is located in a forest area immediately to the west of the 456 federal
highway, several kilometers away from the modern settlements of
Obernhain (just under two kilometers), Saalburgsiedlung (just under two
kilometers), Wehrheim (a good three kilometers) and Bad Homburg in front
of the height ( around six kilometers).
During the Middle Ages and well into modern times, the ruins of the
Saalburg were used as a quarry (among other things for the construction
of the church of the Thron monastery near Wehrheim). Only Elias Neuhof,
Hesse-Homburg government councilor and builder of today's Sinclair House
in Bad Homburg, recognized the Roman origins of the ruins and identified
them in 1747 as a "Roman redoubt". He summarized the results of his
observations and research between 1747 and 1777 in various publications,
most of which have been lost. Thanks to Neuhof, a certain sense of the
building’s worth of protection developed in educated circles for the
first time, but the stone robbery could only be ended in 1818 by a
decree of Landgrave Friedrich V of Hesse-Homburg, after immediately
before, in the years between 1816 and 1818, when Saalburg was declared a
quarry by the city council of Homburg. Finally, in 1820, Landgrave
Friedrich VI bought the complex for better protection.
It was not
until 1841 that Friedrich Gustav Habel (1793-1867), the former archivist
of the Wiesbaden State Library, received permission from Landgrave
Philipp to carry out further research in the area of the Saalburg. In
the years 1853 to 1862, the investigations carried out by the Nassau
Antiquities Society were also under the direction of Habel. In the years
that followed, a newly established Saalburg Commission primarily carried
out conservation measures on the ruins, until 1870 when Karl August von
Cohausen was given the task of directing excavations in the Saalburg
area. The newly awakened interest caused by Cohausen's activities led to
the founding of the Saalburg Association in 1872, the aim of which was
to support further excavations and to set up a museum for the Saalburg
finds. After von Cohausen devoted himself more and more to other
activities related to the Limes and other places in his capacity as
royal conservator for the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in the
course of the 1870s, his previous employee, the Homburg building officer
Louis Jacobi, increasingly took over Cohausens Function and management
of the excavations at the fort.
When in 1892 the Reich Limes
Commission (RLK), headed by Theodor Mommsen, began to research the
entire course of the Limes and the locations of its forts in Germany,
Louis Jacobi and his son Heinrich Jacobi (1866–1946), who later became a
longstanding Head of the Saalburg Museum, track commissioners.
Archaeological activities in the Saalburg area were further intensified
as part of this extensive project, which took decades to complete. In
the end, it was Louis Jacobi who in 1897 persuaded Wilhelm II to have
the Saalburg fort reconstructed under his leadership from 1897 on the
basis of the extensive finds found during excavations. The foundation
stone was laid on October 11, 1900, although Louis Jacobi had already
begun reconstruction work in 1885 by rebuilding the southwest corner of
the defensive wall.
In the years that followed, up to around
1907, the most completely reconstructed fort of the entire Limes was
built, which, together with the Saalburg Museum, is probably the most
important institution of its kind for German Limes research today,
alongside the Limes Museum in Aalen. Louis Jacobis was succeeded by his
son Heinrich, who managed the museum from 1912 to 1936, and then again
on an acting basis from 1945 to 1946.
Heinrich Jacobi died in
1946, with the result that the directorate could not initially be filled
in the post-war period. In 1947/48 the Saalburg was temporarily managed
by Ferdinand Kutsch from Wiesbaden. Inventories from the Oberursel
engine factory that were stored in the museum buildings and the museum
inventory being plundered in the final days of the war prevented the
museum from operating properly. In 1948 the position was filled by the
prehistorian Hans Schönberger. Under Schönberger's management, the
Saalburg once again became a real magnet for visitors. While only 50,000
visitors were registered in 1947, there were around 230,000 when he
became director of the Roman-Germanic Commission in 1966.
Under
Hans Schönberger, the Saalburg became a nationally important research
center on the Limes. Among other things, the museum carried out
excavations in the forts of Echzell, Altenstadt and Heilbronn-Böckingen.
In 1964, the 6th International Limes Congress took place in Germany for
the first time since the war. The Saalburg Guide was translated into
English by the well-known British Limes researcher Eric Birley.
From 1967 to 1993 Dietwulf Baatz, one of the most important Roman
provincial archaeologists of the second half of the 20th century, was
director of the Saalburg Museum. Egon Schallmayer has held this office
since 1995. He retired in 2013 and was succeeded by Carsten Amrhein as
director of the Saalburg.
Following the two earth works of the Domitian wars, a simple wood and
earth fort for a numerus was erected around the year 90 AD, facing north
towards the Limes. A numerus was an auxiliary troop unit that usually
consisted of two centuries, i.e. had a nominal strength of about 160
men. A few finds suggest that the numerus of the Saalburg could have
been a numerus Brittonum, i.e. a unit that was originally recruited in
Britain, but this assumption is not really certain.
In the late
Hadrian period, around the year 135, the numerus fort was replaced by a
3.2 hectare camp for a cohort, an infantry unit of almost 500 men. The
floor plan of this fort was now aligned with the Roman town of Nida and
initially provided with a drywall construction of wood and stone, which
was not replaced by a mortared stone wall with a heaped earth ramp until
the second half of the 2nd century. The reconstruction of the castle
with its dimensions of 147 by 221 meters corresponds to this last phase
of construction. However, fragments of the dry stone wall can still be
seen in the retentura (back of the fort) and a section of the defensive
ditch belonging to the wood-earth fort was left open or restored and can
be visited there.
The garrison of the cohort fort, which was
probably subordinate to the legionary command in Mogontiacum (Mainz),
was the Cohors II Raetorum civium Romanorum (“2nd cohort of the
councilors of Roman citizenship”), i.e. an infantry unit of almost 500
men. The cohort was originally based in Aquae Mattiacorum (Wiesbaden)
and from there, after another stationing in Butzbach Castle (ORL 14),
was finally commanded to the Saalburg.
The fort existed in this
form and with this garrison until the fall of the Limes around the year
260. The name of the unit is repeatedly mentioned in stone inscriptions
at this time and the names of individual commanders have also come down
to us in this way.
At the beginning of the 3rd century, times at
the Limes became more troubled. A preventive war by the Roman Emperor
Caracalla, who advanced from Raetia and Mogontiacum (Mainz) in 213
against the Alamanni and their Chatti allies, only temporarily eased the
Germanic pressure on the imperial border. Nida (today
Frankfurt-Heddernheim), the rear civilian capital of the Civitas
Taunensium, received a ring of fortifications and as early as 233 the
Alemanni invaded Roman areas again. There were further major Alemannic
invasions in 254 and 260. Finally, the entire area on the right bank of
the Rhine was lost during the internal and external political and
economic crisis of the empire around the middle of the 3rd century. In
connection with these events, the Saalburg fort seems to have been
evacuated without fighting.
After the end of the Upper German
Limes, the dilapidated fort was used as a quarry until protection
measures and excavation activities began around the middle of the 19th
century.
Two simple earthworks, the so-called “Schanze A” and the “Schanze B”,
are considered to be the earliest military installations on the Saalburg
saddle. They are located approximately at the level of the retentura
(rear storage area) of the cohort fort, around 60 to 80 meters east of
it. The two small forts were only discovered by chance in 1908 when
clearing the forest there.
In 1913, as part of one of the first
experimental archaeological campaigns in the history of research, the
two forts were completely rebuilt by two engineer battalions north-west
of the actual fort site, in the "Dreimühlenborn" area. The traces of
these systems can still be clearly seen in the area today.
The northern "Schanze A" is considered to be the older of the two
installations. It had an irregular pentagonal floor plan due to a slope
on the north-east side. With an average side length of around 42 m by
38.5 m, the entire complex occupied an area of almost 1,600 m² (= 0.16
ha), the usable interior area, on the other hand, was just under 1,200
m² (= 0.12 ha). On top of the rampart was a wattle and daub fence,
against which the excavation from the defense ditch had been heaped up.
There was no wall walkway behind it. The simple ditch, 1.50 m to 1.80 m
wide and 0.80 m to 0.90 cm deep, surrounded the entire fort and only
advanced sharply in front of the only one on the south side of the fort
and from the central axis of the camp to the right. In front of the
ditch, the traces of another wattle and daub fence that ran around the
entire camp were discovered. It was interpreted as the defense of a
provisional older camp whose crew could have built the "Schanze A".
The troops were probably accommodated in tents, which may have been
located in the western three-quarters of the interior. One can assume a
maximum of ten crew tents, each with eight soldiers, as well as another
tent for the commander of the unit, so that the troop could have been
the size of a century, i.e. it could have consisted of around 80 men
plus charges. The eastern quarter of the camp's inner surface was
probably reserved for the accommodation of beasts of burden and mounts,
as evidenced by the drinking and drainage channels that have been found
in this area of the fort. In the north-west corner of the camp were some
ovens.
The jump was hidden in the mixed forest not far from a
pass over the Taunus ridge. It was probably created under Domitian
during the wars against the Chatti in the years 83 to 85 AD. However, in
view of the small loss of material that usually occurs in short-term
tent camps and therefore also the small number of finds, an earlier,
Vespasian foundation cannot be completely ruled out.
"Schanze B", which is around 28.50 m south of "Schanze A", is younger
and had an almost square floor plan of around 44 m by 46 m, covering a
total area of a good 2,000 m². However, after deducting all the
obstacles to the approach (ditches and ramparts), only a good 300 m² (17
m by 19 m) of usable interior space remained. The complex was surrounded
by a double V-shaped ditch, the individual ditches of which were each
2.80 m wide and 1.20 m deep. On the 1.50 m wide ridge between the two
ditches, a shallow ditch only 15 cm to 30 cm wide was found. At this
point there was probably a wickerwork fence as an additional obstacle to
approaching. A berm towards the fort was completely missing, the inner
embankment of the inner ditch merged seamlessly into the outer
embankment of the rampart, which carried another wattle and daub fence
as a breastwork and the battlements behind it. The ditches opened up in
front of the only gate of the fort, which pointed to the north, to the
Limes. The gate was around five meters wide and could have had a
tower-like structure.
The Via Sagularis (warehouse ring road) ran
between the wall and the inner buildings. The development itself
probably consisted of a single U-shaped building opening towards the
gate with a paved or gravel inner courtyard. The wings of the building
could have contained four to five contubernia each, the rear part of the
building probably consisted of the centurion's living quarters.
Like "Schanze A", "Schanze B" should also have provided space for a
vexillation the size of a century, i.e. for a crew of around 80 men. In
contrast to ski jump A, however, it was a facility that had apparently
been designed from the outset for a longer period of occupancy.
The wood-earth fort, or earth fort as it was also called in older
literature, is the earliest camp on the site where the cohort fort would
later be built. It had a rectangular floor plan. With its central
north-south longitudinal axis of 84.40 m and an east-west transverse
axis of 79.80 m, it occupied an area of just over 6,700 m².
The
defensive wall, which was built entirely of wood and earth, rounded off
the corners of the fort, consisted of an earth fill stabilized on the
inside with wooden posts and reinforced on the outside with turf and
wickerwork. Most of the earth for this probably came from the excavation
of the defensive ditch in front of the wall – and separated from it only
by a 0.60 m to 0.70 m wide berm. This ditch was in the form of a
so-called fossa punica, meaning that it had a much steeper slope on the
enemy side than on the fort side. Overall, it was an average of two
meters deep, its bottom was provided with a narrow drainage channel, at
least partially lined with wooden planks, whose outflow led to the
north. The width of the ditch varied between five and six meters.
At the corners of the fence and in the middle of the east and west
sides, a total of four corner towers and two side towers (or scaffolding
in open construction) could be pushed through four post holes, each up
to 1.25 m deep and forming a square of three by three meters to each
other be detected. There were two fort gates, one on the north and one
on the south, both 3.60 m wide. The northern gate, facing the Limes,
must be addressed as the porta praetoria (main gate). In front of him
the course of the ditch stopped and the earth bridge formed by this
interruption was protected by a piece of ditch, a so-called titulum,
nine to ten meters long that had advanced a good three meters. At the
porta decumana (back gate), on the other hand, the ditch only narrowed,
but ran through it uninterruptedly.
The via sagularis
(Wallinnenstraße, Lagerringstraße), which was around three meters wide,
was connected to the inside of the wall, which was bordered on the
built-up part of the interior of the camp by a 30 cm wide, wooden ditch
covered with planks. After deducting the area taken up by the fence and
via sagularis, there remained a buildable inner area of around 4200 m².
Little is known of the actual interior development. Regular post
placements in the eastern part of the Retentura (rear part of the camp)
make - also in analogy to other numerus forts, especially those of the
Odenwald Limes - probable crew barracks in this area. Some hearths
indicate possible further locations of barracks. A pavement in the
center of the camp, shifted a little to the east from the central axis,
was still addressed by Louis Jacobi as a possible location of the flag
sanctuary (aedes or sacellum), and interpreted by Egon Schallmayer as
the place of the tribunal, but such interpretations must be taken into
account with regard to the remain hypothetical due to the unclear
situation of findings and the lack of clear finds. The function of a
1.50 m deep water basin measuring 3.90 m by 4.50 m in length with a
five-step staircase on the south side also remains unclear.
North-northeast outside of the wood-earth fort (in an area that later
formed the retentura (rear part of the camp) of the cohort fort, not far
from its porta decumana) was the associated fort baths. It was a
block-type bath, that is, the individual rooms of the bath drain were
arranged in two axes next to each other. While the apodyterium (changing
room) and the frigidarium (cold bath room) and cold water basin were in
the eastern half, the tepidarium (leaf bath room), the caldarium (hot
bath room) and the praefurnium (fireplace) were on the western side.
A good dating could be made from the finds that can be assigned to
the earthen fort. According to the find material, the complex was
probably built between the years 90 and 100 AD, and cleared, laid down
and leveled according to plan around the middle of the 1930s. An as of
Hadrian (117–138) minted between 125 and 128 from the ditch filling can
serve as the terminus post quem. As a result of the relatively long
period of occupancy, a small vicus was also able to develop, which
mainly stretched south of the fort. An estimated 350 to 450 people may
have lived here.
The enlargement of the garrison and the associated construction of a
cohort fort instead of a numerus fort is part of a fundamental
restructuring of the Limes in Hadrian's time. The first camp erected by
the new cohort had a fence made of wood and stones laid without mortar
and is therefore also known as a "wood-stone fort". In addition to size
and construction, its orientation was the most obvious new feature: the
praetorial front was no longer oriented towards the Limes, but was
oriented towards the south, towards Nida. The wood and stone fort
covered an area of around 3.2 hectares. Its enclosure consisted of two
0.8 m wide quarry stone walls which ran parallel to each other at a
distance of 2.3 m and the space between them was filled with rubble and
earth. The whole thing was stabilized with a construction made of 20 cm
by 50 cm thick beams that connected the dry stone walls with one another
at regular intervals. The upper end was formed by a - possibly covered -
battlements. In front of the wall, a three meter wide berm and an eight
meter wide V-shaped moat served as an obstacle to approaching. There was
no embankment on the inside, access was via a total of 24 narrow ramps.
A total of 19 ovens with a diameter of between 1.5 m and 1.8 m were
found at various points on the inside of the fence. Louis Jacobi had
denied the existence of corner and gate towers, but today the existence
of wooden towers is assumed.
The via sagularis (Lagerringstraße),
which is around three meters wide and equipped with a sewage ditch, ran
between the fence and the inner building.
Only faint traces,
mainly post holes, could be found of the inner building itself, which
indicated a strong resemblance between the older and the younger
building.
The complex known as the "stone fort" was not a separate and/or completely newly built fort, but an expansion phase during which the defensive wall, which was probably in need of repair, as well as the most important administrative and logistical buildings of the cohort fort, were completely demolished were built of stone. This final construction phase, roughly the same shape as the reconstructed one is presented to visitors today, led to a rectangular cohort fort with four gates, 147 meters wide and 221 meters long, which is typical for this section of the Limes.
The entire fort area of a good 3.25 hectares was surrounded by a
mortared defensive wall, which was plastered on the outside and
decorated with the painting of mock masonry. Inside the fort, behind the
wall, there was an earthen ramp over which the fort crew could reach the
top of the wall. The wall corners were rounded and had no watchtowers,
but all four gates were provided with double towers.
The
foundation of the new wall had a width of 2.10 m to 1.80 m, gradually
narrowing towards the top. to have been 80 m high. On its top it was
provided with battlements, the distance between which was 1.50 m. The
relatively large distance between the battlements can be explained by
the type of armament (hand throwing and sling weapons), for the use of
which a certain free space was necessary. In this respect, the
reconstruction that is visible today, which is based on the findings of
the last construction phase, but whose significantly narrower
crenellation spacing was enforced contrary to the excavation findings
and contrary to the original design at the explicit request of Kaiser
Wilhelm II, is incorrect.
A double V-shaped ditch, which
surrounded the fort following a roughly 90 cm wide berm, served as an
obstacle to the approach. The inner pointed ditch reached a width of
between 8.00 m and 8.75 m at a depth of around three meters, the outer
ditch was almost ten meters wide at 2.5 m to 3.0 m. In front of the
gates, the ditches were interrupted in most places by a bridge of earth.
Where this was not the case, wooden bridges provided access to the
interior of the fort. The function of two major interruptions in the
outer ditch in the northern half of the east side of the fort has not
yet been clarified.
The gates were each designed with two
flanking gate towers of a similar construction, but different widths.
The south-facing Porta Praetoria (main gate) had a double passage
divided by a central pillar, each with a clear width of 3.36 m. The
Porta Decumana (rear camp gate), on the other hand, had only a single
passage 2.8 m wide. The width of the side gates, which were also only
built with single passages, differed only slightly from one another at
3.66 m at the porta principalis sinistra (left side gate) and 3.77 m at
the porta principalis dextra (right side gate).
The renovation of the interior buildings was essentially based on the
floor plans of the previous fort, only the horreum (storage building)
experienced an approximate doubling of the original floor area.
The center of the fort was dominated by the large principia (staff
building) with a covered transept. The dimensions of the main building
complex of the Principia were 41 m by 58 m. The floor plan size of the
transverse hall adjoining to the south was 38.5 m by 11.5 m, which
clearly covers the axis of the via principalis (crossroad that connected
the two side gates). became. The foundations of the vestibule, which are
relatively massive at 85 cm to 95 cm, suggested an above-average room
height, which was also expressed in the reconstruction. During the
excavations in the transverse hall, the remains of a tank statue were
found, among other things, which could have come from the imperial
statue that was once erected here. The fragments can be dated to the
early 3rd century. One entered the hall either through a main gate
located in the axis of the Via Praetoria (camp main street) or one of
the two side gates lying in the axis of the Via principalis. The
canopies that were brought forward over the gates in the reconstruction
were probably intended to protect the open gate leaves in bad weather.
Five more gates led from the hall into a courtyard surrounded on all
four sides by a portico. Its reconstruction is incorrect insofar as it
was probably not open but covered. Inside the courtyard, two wells and a
5.2 m by 5.2 m installation of undetermined function have been
identified.
In the praetentura (front area of the fort), west of
the Via Praetoria was the praetorium (commander's residential building),
to the east was a large horreum (storage building).
The rest of
the fort area - in contrast to today's situation - has to be imagined as
being densely built up with stables, magazines, workshops and of course
the crew quarters with their common rooms (contubernia). Two of these
crew barracks have been reconstructed in the southeastern part of the
fort.
The fort baths of the Saalburg were located in front of the main gate to the west of the road leading to Nida-Heddernheim. During the excavation, the finding was initially interpreted as a "villa". In line with the Wilhelmine restoration concept, a “Roman garden” after Pliny the Elder was laid out in 1888 by the Homburg Taunus Club on the east side of the ruins. The work was carried out by the Homburg court gardener Georg Karl Merle. However, due to a lack of funds for the maintenance of the garden, it fell into disrepair a few years after it was laid out.
The fort baths were originally a row-type bath, in which the
individual bathing sections hot bath (caldarium), leaf bath (tepidarium)
and cold bath (frigidarium) were arranged one behind the other. The
entire complex of the Saalburg thermal baths began in the east with a
large transverse hall, which did not belong to the first construction
phase, but was added at a later point in time, was put down again
relatively early and is interpreted as a changing area (apodyterium). In
a later phase of construction, a hypocaust room was drawn into the
northern half of this apodyterium, which was interpreted as a "winter
apodyterium". On the southern side, the changing area was presumably
flanked by a latrine, which also only belonged to a later construction
period. The next suite of rooms to the west consisted of a frigidarium
together with a bathing pool (piscina) in the south and a heatable room,
probably the sweat bath (sudatorium), in the north. The third suite of
rooms consisted of a tepidarium with a southern apse and a northern room
of unclear purpose. The following escapes consisted of only one room
each, in order:
another 12.5 m by 6.25 m tepidarium with its own
boiler room,
a large caldarium, north and south with apses containing
piscinae, to which is attached
another large and rectangular piscina
in a separate room.
In the west, the thermal baths were closed off by
a large praefurnium.
Since the baths were probably mostly built together with the forts, the thermal baths in the Saalburg have been in use for a long time, which is also proven by several conversions. A sequence of construction measures is made clear by the built-in stamped bricks. The oldest brick stamps can be assigned to the Legio VIII Augusta, followed by stamps of the Legio XXII Primigenia, the Cohors II Raetorum civium Romanorum ("2nd cohort of the councilors of Roman civil rights") stationed here and finally, as the youngest bricks, those of the Cohors IV Vindelicorum ("4th . Vindeliker cohort") from Großkrotzenburg.
Immediately southeast of the thermal baths and directly on the arterial road of the fort to the south was another large and multi-phase building complex, which is interpreted as a lodging house (mansio). Such mansiones were used to accommodate people traveling on behalf of the state and to change horses for official postal services. Corresponding to this function, suites of rooms with the rooms used for accommodation framed an inner courtyard, which served as a storage area for the traveling carriages and the accommodation of the mounts. At least the rooms on the south side of the building could be heated. Since part of the building area was also occupied by the apodyterium of the fort baths, the mansio can only have been built after the demolition of this part of the building, in the second half of the second century. In the late period of the fort, the accommodation building was no longer used and had probably already been partially demolished.
The Saalburg is not only the most extensively restored Limes fort, it
is also the only one whose vicus (civil settlement) has also been
partially uncovered and preserved. The part of the vicus that is visible
today is essentially south of the Saalburg on both sides of the
Saalburgstraße, which in Roman times connected the fort with Nida, the
main town of the Civitas Tauensium at the time, which was also the
location of another rear garrison.
The fort village began
immediately outside the Porta Praetoria (main gate), where there was a
mansio (official accommodation building) and - a little set back - the
bathing building for the soldiers. This was followed today in their
foundations and cellars by preserved and partially reconstructed houses
and possibly also the reconstructed remains of a Mithraeum (place of
worship of the god Mithras, who was very popular in Roman military
circles).
Research assumes that the extensive Saalburg complex
(fort and vicus) was temporarily inhabited by up to 2000 people (500
military and around 1500 civilians).
One problem in researching
the vicus was that for a long time the forts were the focus of
observations and little attention was paid to the vicus area. In
addition, the excavation technology was far from mature and the
documentation of the findings was only sketchy and summary. C. Sebastian
Sommer was the first to recognize different alignments in the alignments
of the buildings when analyzing the old excavation plans and to try to
assign these to specific fort phases. Finally, Cecilia Moneta
systematically examined the old plans and records and arrived at a
periodization. She assigned the vicus findings to three different
periods and came to the conclusion that the first vicus must have been
created at the time of the numerus fort. In principle, three different
periods can be distinguished, two of which are to be regarded as the
main periods of two different fort villages.
The vicus of the first period was created at the same time as the numerus fort was built. The features of this phase (mainly wells, a building and a few property boundaries) were more oriented from east-northeast to west-southwest than the later buildings, which tended more towards the cardinal points, and were laid out on a road leading out of the fort to the south-southeast.
With the construction of the cohort fort, the space requirements and infrastructural needs changed. Part of the old vicus was deliberately burned down to gain space for the new military camp as quickly as possible. However, the existing course of the road was initially retained. The construction of the thermal baths and the adjoining taberna can be attributed to this period.
After the middle of the second century, the old road network was abandoned and a completely new one was laid, which must have been accompanied by a reorganization of the plots of land and the development, for which the development of period II was destroyed by fire and the reorientation of the buildings in the third period speaks. The settlement seems to have reached its economic heyday at the beginning of the third century, with a maximum area of around 13 hectares and the highest population. The end of this period, and thus of the vicus itself, can be limited in time by various factors. Several layers of fire point to a major fire in the first half of the third century, although there are no signs of battle. Dendrochronological data point to the years between 225 and 248. While coins from the time after 233 were found in the actual fort, these are completely missing in the vicus. Ultimately, therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the vicus fell victim to a German invasion in 233. After that, at least, it wasn't of any greater importance. Houses were abandoned, cellars and wells filled.
Since no systematic plans of the necropolises in the vicinity of the fort and the vicus were made in the times of the early archaeological investigations, when the burial grounds were also excavated, unfortunately no complete and complete picture of their exact location can be gained and presented today. As usual, they will have been located on the arterial roads of the fort and outside the settlement limits of the vicus. What is certain is that the largest grave field was south of the fort, on both sides of the road to Nida. The fact that there were no burial places under the road itself suggests that the road was built at the same time as the fort and vicus. The graves were all cremations, some of which were lined with stones or bricks. The cremation of the corpses probably took place in a central Ustrina, the cremation was then collected and buried in urns, which often consisted of organic materials. The accessories usually consisted of ceramic vessels, an oil lamp and a coin, occasionally more luxurious utensils (glass, bronze, etc.) and/or terracotta figures were added, among which the depiction of a rooster was very common.
The older burial ground consists of two find complexes that were
separated from each other by a 30 m wide strip in which no burials could
be proven. Both complexes are located in the area of the vicus and are
partly built over by it.
The northern finding consists of around
50 secured graves, most of which were excavated in 1909, a few in 1969.
The funerary goods, including a sestertius and an ace of Hadrian, as
well as terra sigillata of the Drag forms. 18/31 and Drag. 35, refer to
the first half of the second century.
The southern finding
consists of around 40 graves, of which only 13 have been secured, which
is due to insufficient documentation in the excavation years 1933/1934.
Among the grave goods were a Dupondius of Trajan minted in the years 98
to 102, as well as Terra Sigillate of the types Drag. 18/31 and Drag.
27, which means that this field can also be assigned to the first half
of the second century.
The entire burial ground was probably
occupied in the time of the numerus fort and gradually built over at the
beginning of the time of the cohort fort.
The burial ground south of the vicus is the main necropolis of both
the cohort fort and the civilian settlement. A total of around 300
graves were discovered there, of which only 26 can be clearly assigned.
This is due to the fact that digging in this area was haphazard and
without adequate documentation for two hundred years.
The small
amount of dating finds begins with an ace of Antoninus Pius, which was
minted between 140 and 144. The final date can be narrowed down by a
coin of Septimius Severus, a denarius of Julia Maesa, and a potter's
stamp from the 3rd century. Overall, the younger burial ground may have
been occupied from the middle of the second to the middle of the third
century.
Gustav Habel and Louis Jacobi claim to have recognized a
Ustrina in a finding from the younger burial ground. Today this
interpretation is doubted. Due to the imprecise or missing
documentation, a correct interpretation of the findings is absolutely
impossible.
Grave house: The grave house is on the opposite side
of the Saalburgchaussee. The burial house was built in 1872 as the first
building on the Saalburg Pass with funds from the Saalburg Association,
which was founded in the same year. The house is located in the middle
of the Roman burial ground of the Saalburg. On the one hand, it was
intended to provide a dignified environment for the grave furnishings
and inventories that arose during the excavations. On the other hand,
the building should give an impression of the appearance of the planned
reconstruction of the Saalburg.
On the southern edge of the Vicus, Heinrich Jacobi reconstructed a
Mithraeum, a place of worship of Mithras, right next to a spring.
Although the existence of a sanctuary to the Persian god of light, who
was very popular with soldiers throughout the empire, near a fort the
size of the Saalburg is quite likely, it is not supported by any finds
or features at this point. A mithraeum as well as other places of
worship can be postulated with high probability in the vicinity of the
Saalburg, but their localization remains completely uncertain. The
finding, which Jacobi had interpreted as mithraeum, consisted of two
walls lying next to each other, between which a total of 33 cremation
burials lying close together had been recovered in 1872. The fact that a
floor plan published in 1937 differed from the plan first published in
1897 made Jacobi's interpretation even more doubtful.
While Hans
Schönberger in 1957 and Elmar Schwertheim in 1974 objected to the
interpretation of the finding as mithraeum, scientists today unanimously
assume that the finding is the enclosure of a tomb complex. Due to the
additions of one of the graves, which consisted of, among other things,
a denarius of Julia Maesa, a terra sigillata jug of the Niederbieber 27
type and a sword of Germanic provenance, the dating of this grave
complex can be narrowed down to the extent that there in the first half
of the third century burials must still have been made.
Not far south of the Saalburg is a replica of a Jupiter column found in Mainz in 1904/05. The replica was made by the Mainz sculptor Eduard Schmahl and completed in 1912. The approx. 12 m high Jupiter Column is under monument protection. The figure underwent a refurbishment in 2011–2014.
The marguerite stone next to the mithraeum commemorates the visit of Queen Margherita of Italy to the Saalburg in 1905. It is a listed building.
The neighboring Landgasthof Saalburg has been under monument
protection since 2013, as it has an original interior from the German
imperial era.
Course of the Limes from the Saalburg fort to the
Lochmühle small fort
From the height of the Saalburg Pass, the Limes
descends relatively steeply to the small fort at Lochmühle. It runs
through predominantly heavily forested terrain and loses more than 110
meters in altitude on its way.
The Saalburg Castle and the surrounding Limes systems have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 as a section of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes. They are also ground monuments according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act. Research and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, accidental finds to be reported to the monument authorities.
The Saalburg Castle is one of the archaeological state museums in
Hesse. In this combination it represents the Roman period. Another
Archaeological State Museum is the Celtic world on the Glauberg in
Glauburg-Glauberg for the Iron Age. In organizational terms, the
Saalburg Castle belongs to "hessenARCHÄOLOGY", a department of the State
Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse. Even if the Saalburg
appears primarily as an open-air facility and museum, it also fulfills a
number of scientific functions thanks to the attached research center.
Of course, the reconstructed fort with the complete fence, the
principia (staff building) with the flag shrine (Aedes) and the roll
call hall, the horreum (granary), the two crew barracks with their
contubernia (communal living quarters) as well as the only partially
restored living quarters of the commander ( praetorium).
The Horreum
also contains part of the informative exhibition rooms, which focus on
the presentation of cultural-historical as well as construction and
military-technical aspects of Roman Germania. Other exhibits are in the
Principia and the Fabrica, which was only reconstructed in 2008.
In addition, since its construction, the Saalburg has always been an
internationally renowned research institute for provincial Roman
archeology in general and for investigating the Limes in particular. The
heart of this research facility is formed by the specialist library with
a stock of over 30,000 books and 2200 slides. Numerous colloquia
organized by the Saalburg Museum and, last but not least, the specialist
publications published here round off the scientific work.
The
office of the German Limes Commission, founded in 2003, is also located
in the museum buildings.
Since the early 1980s, annual classical
concerts have been held in the Saalburg by the Lions Club
Friedrichsdorf-Limes.
1897-1910 Louis Jacobi
1912-1935 Heinrich Jacobi
1935–1938
(acting) Wilhelm Schleiermacher
1938–1939 (acting) Joseph Alfs
1945-1946 Heinrich Jacobi
1948-1966 Hans Schoenberger
1966-1993
Dietwulf Baatz
1995-2013 Egon Schallmayer
since 2013 Carsten
Amrhein
In connection with the reconstruction at the end of the
19th/beginning of the 20th century, the interest of the population and
the spa guests staying in Bad Homburg in the Saalburg increased. In
order to ensure that visitors were transported as comfortably as
possible, the Saalburgbahn was built by the Bad Homburg tramway at the
beginning of the 20th century and opened on June 3, 1900. The tram line
was initially very popular with passengers and experienced its heyday
before the First World War. After the war, demand fell, not least due to
the massive drop in the number of spa guests. In addition, inflation
made things difficult for the railways. Operations ceased on July 31,
1935. Apart from a few railway embankments in the forest, only the
former station building, which is a little off the beaten path and not
accessible to the public, remains. It was built according to a design by
the Bad Homburg architect Louis Jacobi, who also reconstructed the
Saalburg for Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Latin inscription is attached to the
vestibule in open half-timbered construction:
IUVET VOS SILVARUM
UMBRA / MANSIO RAEDARUM SAALBURGIENSIUM / SALVETE HOSPITES
The
shade of the forest refreshes you / Saalburg stop of the electric train
/ Greetings guests
The station was at the apex of the turning
loop there. It was extensively restored in 2005 as a monument and is now
used for beekeeping and is a listed building.
Even today, the
Saalburg can be reached by public transport. The city bus line 5 of the
Bad Homburg city transport, which also serves the Hessenpark on
weekends, stops in the immediate vicinity of the fort. Saalburg station
is on the Friedrichsdorf–Albshausen railway line, about 1.2 km away as
the crow flies below the Taunus crest.