Langmauer

The Langmauer is a Roman wall in Rheinland-Pfalz built in the 4th century under Emperor Valentinian I. It stretches for about 72 km to protect a late antique imperial estate covering roughly 220 km². The estate included some of the region’s most fertile soils, suggesting the wall mainly kept out wild animals rather than enemies. Two 7th-century gifts from King Dagobert I show the estate later passed to Frankish rulers. Inside the walled area stood several large farmsteads supplying Trier’s imperial court. The villa at Welschbillig featured a grand basin lined with 112 portrait busts, now displayed in Trier’s Rheinisches Landesmuseum. Fragments of the Langmauer survive near Kordel, Butzweiler and Welschbillig. In Herforst a reconstructed section uses original stones. The wall averaged 60 cm wide, reinforced every few metres by deep stone buttresses. Two inscriptions link its construction to the military unit called the Primani.