Roman roads in Germany
Roman roads in Germany serve a frontier. Most lie west and south of the limes Germanicus, the fortified line that ran from the Rhine to the Danube, and their job was to move troops along it and supplies to it. The Via Belgica came east from Boulogne through Cologne; the Via Claudia Augusta came north over the Alps to the Danube. Beyond the limes Rome laid no paved highways, though cleared campaign routes ran east of the Rhine up the Lippe valley, and an excavated Roman road survives at Dorsten-Holsterhausen.
What to see
Trier, Augusta Treverorum, was an imperial capital and keeps the Porta Nigra, an amphitheatre, imperial baths and a basilica that is still a working church. The Saalburg near Bad Homburg is a fort on the limes reconstructed on its excavated foundations, and the limes itself, running 550 kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Mapped segments
- 430
- Surveyed length
- 8,110 km
- Named roads
- 4
Measured from the Itiner-e survey. Segments by certainty of line: conjectured 402, certain 19, hypothetical 9. A conjectured line is one inferred from evidence either side of it, not a road whose existence is doubted.
Named roads in Germany
Roads the survey identifies by name here, with the length mapped within Germany's modern borders. Most ran further.
- Via Belgica 61 km
- Via Claudia Augusta 49 km
- Via Ausonia 49 km
- Limesweg 24 km
What kind of roads
- Secondary Road 220 segments
- Main Road 210 segments