Heathen Wall (Wiesbaden)

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The edge of the heather wall with the connecting arch to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Bad . The wooden attachment dates from 1903 and is now part of the pedestrian crossing that leads down from the Schulberg.
Section of the Heidenmauer on the Schulberg above the Roman gate

The Heidenmauer is the most famous Roman monument in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden , the Roman Aquae Mattiacorum . According to current opinion, it was built around 370 AD under Emperor Valentinian I and is thus the oldest preserved building in the city. The purpose of this defensive wall cannot be clearly determined to this day, and the dating cannot be more precisely defined than generally in the late phase of the Roman Wiesbaden.

During the Wilhelmine era , the pagan wall was broken through to build Coulin Street and the so-called Roman Gate was added in the style of the time . While only a few sections of the wall are visible above ground, the gate, which was added later, is integrated as a visible monument into the urban structures of the 19th century in the Quellenviertel. It is a cultural monument for artistic, urban and local historical reasons, the Heidenmauer for urban historical reasons.

location

Mapping according to Emil Ritterling : ORL B 2,3b (1909), the course of the heather wall highlighted in blue

The Heidenmauer is located in the center of Wiesbaden and begins on the Schulberg , from where it runs eastwards towards the valley and ends in the street Am Römertor . At the level of Langgasse , the former course bended slightly to the south and ended near the market church in a medieval tower, the so-called Stümperturm or Stümpert . Overall, it can be detected over a distance of 520 m, of which only 80 m are preserved or visible.

Pagan wall

Finding

The wall consisted of a cast masonry for which no uniform stone material was used. The outer wall shell was made up of 30 cm long and 20 cm high hand blocks made of Mainz shell limestone or limestone. It is 2.30 m thick at the base, up to 10.00 m high, and approx. 80 m long. The 3–3.10 m wide foundation is only slightly sunk into the ground and rests on wooden posts with an average diameter of 15 cm and a length of 80 cm.

A pewter capstone built into the modern masonry gives an indication of the battlement. Emil Ritterling believed he could calculate a width of the battlement between 1.52 and 1.57 m from his measurements . Numerous spoils of medieval stone monuments built into the wall indicate that the wall was apparently built under military direction in an emergency situation after the destruction of the civil vicus . Noteworthy are two matching pieces of an inscription, one found in the rubble of the nearby Mithraeum and the other in the pagan wall.

The course of the three towers can be traced : the square Stümpert , the semicircular Heidenturm (only jumps over the wall on the north side) and the Tessenturm , which apparently was not directly integrated into the wall. Of these, only the Heidenturm on the Schulberg above the Roman gate is preserved. In 1731 four towers are said to have been visible. At the southern end of the Hirschgrabenstrasse a 1.35 m deep and 1.5 m wide pointed ditch was documented, which would run parallel to the heather wall if it ran straight.

Late antique burials with typical Germanic grave goods ( Wiesbaden fibulae ) were discovered on both sides of the wall . The burial equipment of the men with swords, lances and axes indicates that they were mercenaries in the Roman service. The graves of the early 5th century were originally thought to be Burgundian , but modern research is more cautious about assigning them to an ethnically identifiable group.

Dating

There are only a few approaches to dating. There were brick and spoils medium-Roman Iron Age stone monuments in the wall, in a section on Kavaliershaus was brick Bullet found. In addition to this characteristic of the 4th century, the wall also contained brick stamps of the late antique military units of the Martenses , Vindices , Portisenses and Secundani . A brick stamp of the 22nd Legion from the cast core of the wall provides further approaches to dating . In the area of ​​the palace square, a consecration stone to the goddess Diana was found as a built-in spoil, which can only generally be dated to the early 2nd century.

A mortar sample from the University of Kiel C14 , which was taken 0.6 m below the top of the wall, points to the time between 214 and 344 AD, but at this point it could also be a repair or extension, which is why further samples are necessary for a reliable dating approach. The dating approaches from the finds are altogether very inconsistent, which is why, compared to the previous classification in the Valentine era, it was erected in the early 3rd century when the area on the right bank of the Rhine was affected by the first Germanic invasions and many Roman settlements in the Limes hinterland such as Nida-Heddernheim , Dieburg or Ladenburg city ​​walls received, cannot be ruled out. Typical of these city walls, however, is an embankment filling on the inside, which is missing from the heather wall.

In the Middle Ages, the heath wall was included in the Wiesbaden city fortifications and is the only remaining part of it today. There is no reliable evidence as to whether structural changes were made to the Heidenmauer in this context.

interpretation

The fact that the wall is breaking down on both sides has given rise to various interpretations, none of which has definite certainty:

  • The wall could have been abandoned during construction and never been completed.
  • The sections that were not protected by the wall were less suitable for attack due to moisture or hillside location and could have been protected by a ditch or palisade.
  • Further fortifications could no longer be detectable due to soil erosion due to the hillside location.

Research history

The largely visible monument attracted the attention of scholars early on. The name Heidenmauer can be traced back to at least the early 16th century. In the beginning, their research was particularly carried out by the Association for Nassau Antiquities and Historical Research . The names of two well-known pioneers of antiquity research are associated with the Roman Wiesbaden and the Heidenmauer: Karl August von Cohausen and Emil Ritterling . Cohausen wrote the first very precise reports on archaeological observations on the heath wall and put forward suggestions for their interpretation. In 1902, Ritterling examined the neighboring area with the Mithraeum as part of his research into the Wiesbaden fort for the Reich Limes Commission . The information on the function of the heather wall was scarce due to the extensive overbuilding.

In the 20th century Ferdinand Kutsch and Helmut Schoppa worked on the Heathen Wall for the Nassau Antiquities Association and the Wiesbaden Museum . Schoppa dealt intensively with the system in three publications, taking into account the investigations that had been added up to that point (reconstruction of the Kavaliershaus 1952). Schoppa tried to explain the poorly uniform appearance of the various known wall sections with different construction columns and drew comparisons with corresponding findings on Hadrian's Wall . Today this is considered largely out of date. Since the heath wall was no longer exposed later, today's descriptions of the findings mostly go back to the information provided by Schoppa.

Recently the previous assumption that it was a defensive wall has been questioned. The architect Martin Lauth sees a water pipe in the building. Among other things, he refers to the remains of pillars that were found around 1839 during the construction of the Taunus Railway in the Salzbachtal south of Wiesbaden. Lauth's thesis was refuted in 2013 by the Wiesbaden archaeologist Margot Klee , among other things with reference to structural details that exclude a function as a water pipe. Lauth instrumentalized the findings in a decidedly one-sided way, for example by adding a lime kiln covered by the wall of the youngest stone fort , a cistern in the fort's Principia or the consecration stone of a prefectus Aquen (sium) found in Mainz-Kastel to the heath wall . Werner Eck criticized the fact that Lauth had massively disregarded the methodological requirements and working methods of various scientific disciplines and argued with erroneous historical facts.

Roman gate

architecture

Exposure and breakthrough of the Heidenmauer 1901/02 and the “Römertor” 2007 - from the same perspective

In 1902, the remains of the heath wall were broken through for the construction of Coulinstrasse after the city had acquired the Adler site in 1900. The then Wiesbaden city architect Felix August Helfgott Genzmer had the so-called Römertor built in 1903. The loss of the historical building fabric, which was already perceived as serious at that time, was to be compensated for by integrating historical buildings as harmoniously as possible.

Genzmer designed a viaduct with main and side gates, archaic staircases, towers and roofed battlements, which, in its execution with quarry stone masonry and wooden construction, was reminiscent of Roman fortress architecture. The covered wooden construction over the street is based on the Trajan's Bridge over the Danube from AD 103. Suggestions came from the Saalburg , which has been reconstructed since 1898 , where, like the Roman Gate, ideas of Roman architecture from that time were mixed with motifs from medieval fortifications.

In 1979, the crossing of Coulinstrasse, which was previously inaccessible to the public, was made accessible as a pedestrian crossing by adding a staircase on the valley side and a new footbridge on the mountain side. As part of a renovation of the wooden structure decided in 2012, these modifications were removed again. The gate is only accessible as a viewing platform during guided tours.

Surroundings

The Kirchhofgäßchen below was abandoned during construction because it seemed too steep to connect to Adlerstrasse. In its place was the street Am Römertor , the road of which leads up in a tight curve to Coulinstraße. The former cemetery on the Heidenmauer in between was designed like a park.

Copies of stone monuments from Roman times found in Wiesbaden were placed below the Roman gate, creating an open-air museum. Below are soldiers' grave stones, an inscription that indicates a restoration of a Dolichenus sanctuary , and the building inscription for a meeting house of local traders. The originals are in the Nassau antiquities collection and are currently not open to the public. These require to build the Roman Gate excavation into the slope of was Heath mountain deepened Mithraeum discovered that was already destroyed by investing the pagan wall. The associated cult image was not found, there is a cast of such a relief from Nida-Heddernheim , the original of which is kept in the Wiesbaden Museum.

  • Copies of stone monuments from the Nassau antiquities collection

  • Gravestone of the rider Dolanus Bessus

  • Building inscription for a meeting house of local traders

  • Inscription for the restoration of a Dolichenus sanctuary

literature

  • Walter Czysz : Wiesbaden in Roman times. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1088-8 , pp. 220-225.
  • Jürgen Oldenstein : Alzey Castle. Archaeological investigations in the late Roman camp and studies on border defense in the Mainz ducat. Habilitation thesis Universität Mainz 1992, pp. 319–321 ( online , PDF, 14.9 MB).
  • Gerhard Honekamp: Roman battles of retreat - the construction of the pagan wall. In: Everyday life between the mighty and the idlers - historical explorations in Wiesbaden and the surrounding area. Breuer, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim 1995, pp. 16-19.
  • Hans-Günther Simon , in: Dietwulf Baatz , Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (Ed.): The Romans in Hessen . 3. Edition. 1989. Licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , pp. 490-491.
  • Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-2010-7 , pp. 116-118, 141-146 and others. 222.
  • Jörg Lindenthal: Cultural Discoveries. Archaeological monuments in Hessen. Jenior, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-934377-73-4 , pp. 199-200.
  • Martin Lauth: Wiesbaden - Aquae Mattiacae - the city of water: The Heidenmauer in Wiesbaden - From the bulwark to the aqueduct. In: Nassauische Annalen 122, 2011, pp. 1–53 (unrecognized outsider thesis; online; PDF, 4.9 MB ).
  • Margot Klee : barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20.
  • Margot Klee: Water for Wiesbaden? Critical remarks on the interpretation of the so-called "Heidenmauer" in Wiesbaden as an aqueduct. In: Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Palatinatus Illustrandus. Festschrift for Helmut Bernhard on his 65th birthday. Franz Philipp Rutzen, Mainz / Ruhpolding 2013, ISBN 978-3-447-06976-2 , pp. 216–223.

Web links

Commons : Heidenmauer / Römertor  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Czysz: Wiesbaden in Roman times. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1088-8 , pp. 220, 222 and 225; H.-G. Simon, in: Dietwulf Baatz, Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (Ed.): The Romans in Hessen . 3. Edition. 1989. Licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 490; Jörg Lindenthal: Cultural Discoveries. Archaeological monuments in Hessen. Jenior, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-934377-73-4 , p. 200; Jürgen Oldenstein: Alzey Castle. Archaeological investigations in the late Roman camp and studies on border defense in the Mainz ducat. Habilitation thesis Universität Mainz 1992, pp. 320–321; Jürgen Oldenstein: The late Roman fortifications between Strasbourg and Andernach. In: Franz J. Felten (ed.): Fortifications and castles on the Rhine (= Mainz lectures. 15). Steiner, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-515-10072-4 , p. 28.
  2. ^ Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 118, 144, 146.
  3. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, p. 2f.
  4. ^ Walter Czysz: Wiesbaden in Roman times. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 224, with further sources.
  5. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20, here: pp. 5f.
  6. ↑ CIL 13, 7570 (d) and CIL 13, 7571
  7. ^ Margot Klee: Water for Wiesbaden? Critical remarks on the interpretation of the so-called "Heidenmauer" in Wiesbaden as an aqueduct. In: Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Palatinatus Illustrandus. Festschrift for Helmut Bernhard on his 65th birthday. Mainz / Ruhpolding 2013, pp. 216–223, here: p. 221.
  8. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20, here: p. 1 with further sources.
  9. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20, here: p. 20.
  10. ↑ Horst Wolfgang Böhme : The "Wiesbaden fibulae". In: Patrick Jung / Nina Schücker (eds.): Utere felix vivas. Festschrift for Jürgen Oldenstein. Habelt, Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-7749-3728-4 (University publications on prehistoric archeology 208) , pp. 23–39.
  11. ↑ Jürgen Oldenstein: Alzey Castle. Archaeological investigations in the late Roman camp and studies on border defense in the Mainz ducat. Habilitation thesis Universität Mainz 1992, p. 319; Jürgen Oldenstein: The late Roman fortifications between Strasbourg and Andernach. In: Franz J. Felten (ed.): Fortifications and castles on the Rhine (= Mainz lectures. 15). Steiner, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-515-10072-4 , p. 27.
  12. ↑ CIL 13, 7565 .
  13. ↑ All information on the dating approaches from Margot Klee: Water for Wiesbaden? Critical remarks on the interpretation of the so-called "Heidenmauer" in Wiesbaden as an aqueduct. In: Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Palatinatus Illustrandus. Festschrift for Helmut Bernhard on his 65th birthday. Mainz / Ruhpolding 2013, pp. 216–223, here: p. 222; Margot Klee: barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125 (2014), pp. 1–20, here: p. 17.
  14. ^ Hans-Günther Simon , in: Dietwulf Baatz, Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen . 3. Edition. 1989. Licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 491; Jürgen Oldenstein: Alzey Castle. Archaeological investigations in the late Roman camp and studies on border defense in the Mainz ducat. Habilitation thesis Universität Mainz 1992, p. 320; goes back to Helmut Schoppa: Aquae Mattiacae. Wiesbaden's Roman and Alemannic-Merovingian past. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974, p. 96f.
  15. ^ Walter Czysz: Wiesbaden in Roman times. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1088-8 , p. 221; Jörg Lindenthal: Cultural Discoveries. Archaeological monuments in Hessen. Jenior, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-934377-73-4 , p. 200; was already suspected in the 1870s by Karl August von Cohausen: A. v. Cohausen: Miscelles. In: Annals of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research 12, 1873, p. 317 and ders .: Die Heidenmauer. In: Annals of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and History Research 14, 1877, p. 410f.
  16. ^ Walter Czysz: Wiesbaden in Roman times. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1088-8 , p. 221.
  17. ↑ August von Cohausen: The Heidenmauer. In: Annals of the Association for Nassau antiquity and historical research 14, 1877, pp. 406-413.
  18. ^ Emil Ritterling, Ludwig Pallat : Roman finds from Wiesbaden. In: Annalen des Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung 29, 1897/98, pp. 115–169; Emil Ritterling: The Wiesbaden Castle. In: Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches Dept. B 2,3b No. 31 (1909).
  19. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20, here: p. 1.
  20. ↑ Ferdinand Kutsch: New finds on a Valentine bridgehead of Mainz. In: Harald von Petrikovits / Albert Steeger (eds.): Festschrift for August Oxé on his 75th birthday, July 23, 1938 , Darmstadt 1938, p. 206.
  21. ↑ Helmut Schoppa: Aquae Mattiacae. Wiesbaden's Roman and Alemannic-Merovingian past. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974, pp. 95-97; the same: Aquae Mattiacorum and Civitas Mattiacorum. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 172, 1972, p. 232; the same: Heidenmauer and castrum, quod moderno tempore Wisibada vocatur. In: Nassauische Heimatblätter 43, 1953, pp. 21–37.
  22. ↑ Jürgen Oldenstein: Alzey Castle. Archaeological investigations in the late Roman camp and studies on border defense in the Mainz ducat. Habilitation thesis University Mainz 1992, p. 319 with annotations 310 u. 311
  23. ↑ Martin Lauth: Wiesbaden - Aquae Mattiacae - the city of water: The Heidenmauer in Wiesbaden - From the bulwark to the aqueduct. In: Nassauische Annalen 122, 2011, pp. 1–53 ( online; PDF, 4.9 MB ).
  24. ^ Margot Klee: Water for Wiesbaden? Critical remarks on the interpretation of the so-called "Heidenmauer" in Wiesbaden as an aqueduct. In: Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Palatinatus Illustrandus. Festschrift for Helmut Bernhard on his 65th birthday. Mainz / Ruhpolding 2013, pp. 216–223; Margot Klee: barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20.
  25. ↑ CIL 13, 7279 : In h (onorem) d (omus) d (ivinae) / deabus N <y = I> m / phis signa et / aram G (aius!) Ca / rantinius / Maternu / s praefect / us Aquen (sium) / v (otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) l (aetus) m (erito) ; Reading by Arachne ; ubi erat lupa .
  26. ^ Margot Klee: Barrier wall or aqueduct? On the interpretation of the pagan wall in Wiesbaden. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 1–20, here: pp. 6f.
  27. ↑ Werner Eck : A praefectus Aquen (sium), no praefectus aqu (a) e. To the inscription CIL XIII 7279 from Mainz-Kastel. In: Nassauische Annalen 125, 2014, pp. 21–28, here: p. 21.
  28. ^ Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 145f.
  29. ↑ A structural gem is given a new look. In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt , September 12, 2012 ( online ( memento of October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
  30. ^ Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 145f.
  31. ↑ The pedestrian crossing disappears. In: Wiesbaden Courier. September 4, 2012, p. 5.
  32. ^ Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon. Stuttgart 2005, p. 146.
  33. ↑ Ua CIL 13, 7585 (4, p 128) .
  34. ↑ CIL 13, 7566a .
  35. ↑ CIL 13, 7587 .
  36. ^ Sigrid Russ: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wiesbaden I.1 - Historical pentagon. Stuttgart 2005, p. 118 u. 144.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 27, 2014 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 3.6 ″  N , 8 ° 14 ′ 19.7 ″  E