Wittelshofen

The Ruffenhofen fort is located about 800 m south-east of the town of the same name on a hill above the Wörnitz in the border area of the communities of Weiltingen, Wittelshofen and Gerolfingen.

It is about 2 km from the Limes. Today, nothing is visible of the above-average sized stone fort with an interior area of 3.7 hectares. So far, only small excavations have taken place. The extent of the fort and the associated vicus has been known from aerial photographs since the 1980s. Since 1998, the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has been geomagnetically prospecting, which has led to an exact plan of the fort and the civilian settlement.

The troop camp has an almost square floor plan of 190 x 197 m and thus housed around 500 cavalry soldiers. It was one of the largest and most important Limes forts. The fort and vicus Ruffenhofen is of international interest mainly because it is one of the few forts that has never been built over. Over 40 hectares of land were purchased and withdrawn from agricultural use in order to preserve the Roman monuments for the future. Since the spring of 2003, the area has gradually been developed for tourism as the Römerpark Ruffenhofen.