Hiking Highlight
Recommended by 55 out of 59 hikers
This Highlight is in a protected area
Please check local regulations for: Geopark Schwäbische Alb
The fort was built around 150 AD. The Kastellbad is located next to the fort. Such a bath used to belong to almost every Roman military camp. You can still see the floor plan very well. Several information boards tell you more about the history of the castle, which was probably inhabited by a sub-unit of the Roman legion.
April 26, 2020
The Schirenhof fort, also known as Etzelsburg, is a former Roman cohort fort that is now located in the urban area of Schwäbisch Gmünd, on the grounds of the Schirenhof in the Ostalbkreis district, Baden-Württemberg. It was built around 150 AD on a mountain tongue with a view over the Rems to the Rhaetian Limes behind it, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
(c) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastell_Schirenhof
October 21, 2020
The well-chosen location of this ancient fortification, founded on the territory of the Roman province of Raetia, is halfway up a south-east-north-west oriented mountain spur above the Rems. On the opposite side of the valley, about a kilometer away in a northwesterly direction, was the small fort Freimühle[1], which was also located on a small spur at the eastern exit of the Rotenbachtal. If you go from this small fort for another kilometer across the Rotenbach valley to the northwest up a steep slope, you will reach another ancient military site, the small fort Kleindeinbach, which was already built in the area of the Roman province of Germania superior and is around 50 meters from the wooden palisade of the Limes was removed. Just a few meters to the east of this small complex, descending into the Rotenbach valley, the province of Raetia began with the Rhaetian stone wall that stretched all the way to the Danube. Dendrochronological investigations have been able to determine an exact construction date in this valley. The wood processed there was felled in the winter of 163/164 and installed in 164.[2] However, it is not entirely clear whether the wood recovered there actually came from the palisade and not from a bridge just behind it.[3] The border area of Germania Superior and Raetia was unusually densely populated with Roman military bases in the Limes area. The proximity of the cohort forts Lorch on the edge of the province of Germania superior and Schirenhof in Raetia seem to confirm this impression. Both are only about seven kilometers apart. Perhaps a certain independent action by those responsible for the provincial administration becomes visible here. In particular, the expansion of the imperial border in Stein, which was only carried out in Raetia, could be evidence of this.
more: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastell_Schirenhof
October 21, 2020
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