Fischerwall

The Fischerwall is a silted-up Slavic rampart in the village of Kuckssee, set beside the shallow Kuckssee lake in the Mecklenburg Lake District. The site once formed part of a two-part fortress built on low ground, with a square forecourt and a circular main rampart—an unusual arrangement for the period. Archaeologists have recovered pottery from the 10th century, proving the stronghold stood during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. The remains are the successor to the nearby Grapenwerder hillfort, only a few hundred metres away, and the two sites may once have been linked by a narrow sand causeway. A wooden bridge once crossed a small river to give access from the south, while an alignment pointing north-east suggests the main enclosure once housed a temple facing the rising sun. In the 19th century earth was repeatedly dug from the ramparts, altering their original shape, and today the area serves as pasture, further disturbing the earthworks. Visitors walk over grassy mounds that mark the vanished walls and forecourt, with the lake on one side and farmland on the other. The outlines of the two enclosures are still faintly visible from the air, and the straight line of the old bridge approach can be traced on the ground. The site offers a quiet place to imagine the wooden palisades, temple and bridge that once stood here a thousand years ago.