Saalburg Roman Fort

The Saalburg is a Roman fort on the Taunus ridge northwest of Bad Homburg. It stands on the Limes Germanicus, the Roman border line through Germany, and is the most completely reconstructed cohort fort in the country. Since 2005 it has formed part of a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Upper Limes. The fort lies just off the main road between Bad Homburg and Wehrheim. In modern numbering it is ORL 11 on the limes.

The site was first examined from 1853 to 1862 by the Nassau Antiquarian Society under Friedrich Gustav Habel. In 1892 the Reichs-Limes-Kommission began intensive exploration under Theodor Mommsen. Louis Jacobi and his son Heinrich led the excavations and in 1897 Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered the fort reconstructed. The Saalburg Museum inside the fort is one of Germany’s two leading Limes research institutions. From 1967 to 1993 the museum was directed by archaeologist Dietwulf Baatz, whose work brought provincial Roman archaeology to a wide public.

Visitors walk through the reconstructed fort’s 147 by 221 metre rectangle of mortared stone walls and earthen ramparts. The main gate faces south towards the former Roman city of Nida. Inside, the principia is the central plaza with offices and a hall for assemblies. Two reconstructed barracks stand in the southeast. Outside the south gate, remains of the vicus include a mansio and a large military bathhouse with apodyterium, frigidarium, tepidaria, caldarium and sudatorium. Along the road are foundations of houses and a mithraeum.