Heidenmauer, Wiesbaden

The Heathen Wall is the best-known Roman monument in the Hessian state capital Wiesbaden, the Roman Aquae Mattiacorum. It is believed to have been built around 370 AD under Emperor Valentinian I, making it the oldest surviving structure in the city. The purpose of this defensive wall cannot be clearly determined to this day, just as the dating cannot be narrowed down more precisely than generally to the late phase of Roman Wiesbaden.

In the Wilhelmine period, the Heidenmauer was breached for the construction of the Coulinstrasse and supplemented in the style of the time with the so-called Römertor. While only a few sections of the wall are visible above ground, the gate, which was inserted later, is integrated as a visible monument into the urban structures of the 19th century in the Quellenviertel. It is a cultural monument for artistic, urban planning, and local history reasons, and the Heidenmauer for urban history reasons.