Abschnittsbefestigung Puch

The Abschnittsbefestigung Puch stands on a 565-metre edge of a plateau about 850 metres south-south-west of St Sebastian’s church in Puch, a village in the Fürstenfeldbruck district of Upper Bavaria. Known locally as the Römerschanze or Burgstall, it is a small earthwork defence that may date from the early Middle Ages. The site occupies a spur of land that drops sharply 10 to 15 metres on its southern and south-western sides. The defences consist of two almost right-angled ditches enclosing an inner space roughly 70 by 110 metres. The ditches were dug to a depth of about 1.5 metres, and the upcast ramparts rise about 3.5 metres from the ditch floor and two metres above the interior. The site was planted with young woodland around the year 2000, making access to the interior and ditches difficult. A farm track cuts through the ramparts, giving glimpses of the defensive system. Nearby lie further traces of the past. To the west is a prehistoric barrow cemetery with fourteen visible mounds, and to the east are several funnel-shaped pits of unknown date. A short distance away the Kaiseranger commemorates the death of Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, who was killed by a falling tree in 1347 while hunting bear. A memorial column by Roman Anton Boos marks the spot in the Ampere plain east of Puch.