Roman Castle Oberscheidental

The military significance of the area, particularly for monitoring the Elz valley, was recognized as early as the first half of the 19th century when Roman relics were discovered. Following initial hypotheses by the Buchen Antiquities Association in 1863, efforts by Karl Christ and the Mannheim Antiquities Association led to the localization of the cohort fort starting in 1880. Excavations began in 1883, followed by the restoration of the Porta Principalis Dextra in 1886 and further investigations by the Imperial Limes Commission in 1895. The fort, originally built as a wood-and-earth camp under Trajan, was reinforced during the Hadrianic period with a dry-stone wall and later with a mortar wall made of regional Bunter sandstone.