Roman Ruins Walking Tour (Self Guided), Regensburg

Meandering through the Old Town of Regensburg, it’s easy to forget that some 1800 years ago most of this area was occupied by a Roman fortress. Although the first settlement here dates from as early as the Stone Age, it is the Romans who put it firmly on the map.

Around 90 AD, they first built an expeditionary and then a permanent military camp called Castra Regina ("Fortress by the River Regen"), in 179 AD, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Designed to accommodate the 3rd Italian Legion (Legio III Italica), the rectangular fort measured 540 x 450 meters and was fit to house up to 6,000 soldiers.

Important for its location, at the junction of the Danube and Regen rivers, this outpost formed part of the Roman Empire’s northern frontier (the so-called Danubian Limes) and corresponded roughly to what is now the core of Regensburg's Altstadt (Old Town). It was surrounded by a mighty wall comprising large ashlars with towers and a wide moat in front of it.

By the 3rd century AD, the camp had an extensive civilian suburb with residential and commercial buildings, shops, villas, sanctuaries, and a large bathing complex ("therme"). In the 5th century, constant Barbarian raids and migrations forced the Romans to abandon the fort, but the large ashlar wall of the legionary camp continued to protect the early medieval town long after they left. The east side of the fortress wall served as a city wall during the High Middle Ages and was repaired accordingly; hence the large portions thereof have been preserved.

Today, traces of the Roman-era buildings and remnants of the legionary camp fortifications are found both under and above ground in the heart of Regensburg. Perhaps the most prominent of them is the former north gate to Castra Regina, called Porta Praetoria, the largest surviving Roman building in Bavaria.

Other impressive relics include a long section of the Roman wall uncovered during the construction of a multi-story car park in Dachau Square (Dachauplatz), as well as fragments of the north- and south-east corners of the wall that once encircled the Roman camp. Together they are featured in the multimedia "Legion Camp Wall Document" ("Document Legionslagermauer”).

If Regensburg is "The Jewel of Bavaria", then Castra Regina is undoubtedly the jewel of its Roman part. To learn more about the Roman legacy of this former imperial outpost in the Danubian region, take our self-guided historical tour.