Saalburg Roman Fortress Museum

Todays adventure took us to Saalburg Roman Fortress, part of a line of defence for the Roman Empire during the 1st and 2nd centuries against the hoards of Germanic hill tribes. 

We are staying a little south of Mainz ( in the middle of the map with the big red square) Probably where the E is in Germany. 

The red line shows the walled defences set up by the Romans, along with the garrisons and forts along the way. They really weren't mucking about. Despite all of this industrious pursuit, the line eventually fell and Rome was overtaken by the great unwashed hoards in the third century.

The museum was an excellent midway demonstration tool for the kids in their history lessons. We have focused on 1st and 2nd century Roman occupation of the UK, so it was great to put it into perspective in Europe and for the kids to see the map of what Rome once commanded.( The below map will show you - see the red line?  its pretty impressive)  I believe its extremely important to study the Roman Empire. After nearly 2 centuries since their collapse, their influences are still keenly felt in our own culture and society. The Roman Empires demise too, is something the kids and I will discuss at length when they are a little older and more interested in politics.

The fortress is probably the best restored and kept roman 'ruin' I've seen. I do understand that there was a little bit of recreation occur over the years, but its been done very sympathetically - and to be honest, after traipsing round mounds of rocks and bricks spread in random patterns and attempting to visualise it being a grand hall or some such thing; its kinda nice to see some walls.. and a roof, on a building.

Below are what is left of the cooking domes which would have ben part of the open air kitchens for the troops.

On one side of the fortress they kept the ruins, on the other they recreated the domes - and by the looks of it, they do demonstrations of how to use them . ( its still winter here , so not much interactivity is available. I understand that there are Roman Centurions on guard most of the time during the Summer.. wow.. that would have been cool to see.

It was very impressive to see the recreations of every day life throughout the fortress. The amount of details that the designers went into!  Above is one of the rooms - the Barracks, complete with stinky muddy shoes.

Just seeing the courtyards such as the one below, brings so many memories back of our trip through Italy and through the ruins - oh and the countless movies where there are sweaty muscly young men practising their sword fighting.. hmmm