Vorderer Schlossberg

The Vorderer Schlossberg is a well-preserved early medieval ringfort about two kilometres east of Mering in Bavaria’s Aichach-Friedberg district. It sits on a low hill at the edge of the Hartwald forest, marking one of the small defensive works built around 900 to protect against Magyar raids. Beneath the main ramparts lie traces of a Roman building, while nearby finds confirm contact with the Roman world. The site’s earthworks and layout clearly show it was designed as a Magyar defence ring. A similar wall seven kilometres north at Kissing on the Lechrain is mentioned by Widukind of Corvey, who wrote that small forts on the right bank of the Lech harried the retreating Magyars after their defeat at the Lechfeld in 955. The Vorderer Schlossberg stands apart from the village, hidden in the landscape, with another ancient fort, the Hinterer Schlossberg, two kilometres away at the far end of the Hartwald. Visitors follow a winding path up a gentle slope to the oval main stronghold, where a two-metre-high rampart and shallow ditch once encircled the whole site. Inside, the older western wall is still visible, while a later horseshoe-shaped extension nearly doubled the area. A stone foundation band runs along the ramparts, and faint traces of a double-tower gate survive near the protected eastern entrance. Dense thorny scrub and young woodland now cover the slopes, making walking difficult, but the measured plan by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation shows how the fort once stood.