Nettersheim

Clearly visible in the rock: Deeply carved tracks on the exposed section of Via Agrippa bear witness to the fact that carts, such as transport or travelling carriages, travelled here for many years. If you follow the path north towards the Urft Valley, you can see the cut structure of the Roman road on the side of the slope.

The Eichertal valley opens up from the south towards the Urfttal valley. This made it ideal for a branch of the Roman road, as carts could travel here more easily than on the road further east, which climbed up the steep southern slope of the Urfttal valley.

The route passing through here ran through what is now the village of Marmagen and along important ore deposits. In Roman and later times, iron ore was mainly mined there above ground. This is evidenced by funnel-shaped pits, known in the German language as “Pingen”, in the Weilerheck/Weilerbüsch area.

Coming from Cologne, the Via Agrippa split into two routes at Kall, which converged again in the south at Schmidtheim. Shortly before the Urft Valley, the western route split again into two strands, which crossed the river at different points. The eastern route in the Rosenthal valley was the more direct connection, but it also included the steep southern slope. The route led through the Roman settlement of Marcomagus.