Irgenhausen Castrum

Irgenhausen Castrum is a Roman fort at Irgenhausen, situated on Pfäffikersee lake shore in Switzerland [1]. It was a square fort, measuring 60 metres in square [1]. The castrum is situated on the Bürglen hill in Irgenhausen [1]. In the Roman era, along Pfäffikersee there was a Roman road from Centum Prata on Obersee–Lake Zürich via Vitudurum to Tasgetium on the Rhine [1]. To secure this important transport route, the castrum was built [1]. In 1897, stones of the ruined building (believed at the time to be those of a medieval castle) were used for the construction of a factory nearby; the dilapidation was stopped by the Antiquarische Gesellschaft in Zürich in order to start archaeological investigations, carried out between 1898 and 1908, and to preserve the walls [1]. As early as AD 400 the castrum was evacuated and destroyed by Alamanni invaders [1]. The excavations restored a 1.4 metres high foundation wall that has an almost square outline of 60 metres x 61 metres, and thus an area of only 0.366 hectares [1].