Castra of Oberhochstatt

Kastell Oberhochstatt lies just north-east of the village of Oberhochstatt in Mittelfranken, where the Rohrbach valley begins. It was a small Roman fort built on a spur of land that drops steeply into the valley. The fort’s position gave its garrison a clear view over the Roman town of Weißenburg and as far as the Hesselberg, forty kilometres away. Signal stations on the Hesselberg would have allowed Oberhochstatt to communicate with distant forts such as Ruffenhofen and Dambach. The nearby fort at Theilenhofen could also be seen when visibility was good. The site’s strategic value is underlined by finds from many periods. Neolithic and Mesolithic traces appear on the slopes around the fort, while Roman coins and bronze letters, including one struck for Antoninus Pius, were dug up in the 19th century. In 1833 the local priest, Langheinrich, recorded the discovery of large bronze letters that may once have formed part of an inscription. Archaeologists such as Barbara Pferdehirt and Thomas Fischer have linked these letters to the reign of Caracalla. Today the buried remains lie south of the Indernbuch–Burgsalach crossroads near the field called Burgstall. A road cuts through the fort’s interior, and the slope to the north-west has slipped away since Roman times, destroying much of the original structure. Geomagnetic surveys in 2009 and 2010 revealed traces of a wooden predecessor and parts of the civilian settlement, though no clear street plan has yet emerged.