Ringwall Abtenberg

The Ringwall Abtenberg is a small early medieval earthwork ringwall on a spur of the Abtenberg in the Breitengüßbacher Forst. It stands between the valleys of the Itz and the Main in the Upper Franconian district of Lichtenfels. The site lies 1 350 metres east of the parish church of Mariae Himmelfahrt in Medlitz. Archaeologists date the defences to the Carolingian–Ottonian period. No small finds have been recovered, so the dating remains provisional. A dry-stone wall was recorded during a section cut in 1959 by Konrad Radunz. The ringwall guarded a branch of the medieval trade route known as the Hohe Straße from Bamberg to Thuringia. Visitors reach the spur by a gentle climb from the valley floor. The surviving rampart is only about a metre high and four metres wide, best seen on the north-eastern side where a shallow ditch once reinforced it. The interior measures roughly 110 by 87 metres and slopes gently towards the church spire of Medlitz in the distance.