Castra of Lützelbach

The Roman fort at Lützelbach stands on a narrow ridge in the Odenwald, one kilometre south-east of the village of Lützel-Wiebelsbach. The plateau is bounded by steep slopes on the north-west side and overlooks two valleys, one to the west and one to the east. The fort’s stone wall once enclosed an area of about 5 250 square metres, making it the smallest unit post on this stretch of the Limes. The wall was built of red sandstone, its outer face dressed with carefully cut blocks and its core filled with rough rubble. Three gates pierced the wall, each flanked by rectangular towers, while a ditch up to eight metres wide and 1.35 metres deep ran outside. The fort was probably built early in the 2nd century and abandoned when the frontier was moved forward in 159. Its garrison was a detachment of roughly 160 auxiliary soldiers, a unit known as a numerus. The interior buildings were largely robbed out in the 19th century, but geophysical surveys in the 21st century showed that the bath-house north of the fort still preserves its original layout underground. The baths follow the row-type plan, with rooms arranged in sequence from changing room through warm and hot chambers to a cold plunge. Visitors today walk over grassy mounds that mark the line of the fort wall and the positions of the three gates. The bath-house appears as a low rise about forty metres north of the fort, its buried walls still intact beneath the turf. The ridge continues south for two kilometres to the next small fort at Windlücke, passing two watch-tower sites along the way. The whole frontier system is protected as a scheduled ancient monument.