Castra of Würzberg

The Kastell Würzberg is a Roman fort on the Odenwald Limes, a frontier line built by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries. It stands on a ridge in the Odenwald forest, about two and a half kilometres south of Würzberg, a small village in Hesse. The site lies at about 525 metres above sea level, where the ridge runs north to south. The fort once guarded a quiet stretch of the Limes, a line of watchtowers and palisades marking the empire’s northern border. Its position on high ground gave the garrison clear views over the surrounding valleys. The fort is one of the best-preserved Numerus forts along the Odenwald Limes. Archaeologists have uncovered its walls, gates and bathhouse, revealing how the fort changed over time. The first wooden earthwork was built in Trajan’s reign, then replaced by a stone wall in the 2nd century. The fort was abandoned by about 159, when the Limes was moved eastward. Earlier scholars like Johann Friedrich Knapp and Friedrich Kofler examined the site, but the most important dig came in 1963 under Dietwulf Baatz. His work, together with finds at nearby Kastell Hesselbach, helped reconstruct many Odenwald forts. Visitors walk over the low walls that once enclosed the fort’s four-hectare rectangle. The rounded corners show no towers, but the main gate faced the Limes while a small back gate was later sealed. A six-metre ditch ran around the outside, steep on the enemy side and shallow on the fort’s side. Inside, the gravelled roads and the remains of the bathhouse can still be traced. The bath had separate rooms for cold, warm and hot bathing, heated by two furnaces. Plastered walls, glazed windows and running water once made this a place of comfort for the soldiers stationed here.