Via Belgica in Übach-Palenberg

The Via Belgica had to overcome a difference in elevation of just over 20 meters between the plateau and the valley of the Übach. In order to maintain a straight route, the Roman engineers chose an appropriate structural solution: they overcame the slope by laying the road as an inclined ramp within an artificial cutting into the terrain. To keep the gradient within limits, the cut began gradually more than 130 meters before the slope and extended over a total length of about 230 meters. The road’s incline is estimated to have been between 8.5 and 10 percent, as demonstrated by the archaeological investigations carried out here.

Geophysical measurements along the Via Belgica show that the long-distance road can still be found beneath the modern farm track. The clearly visible roadside ditches on both sides indicate that the road had a width of 25 meters at this point. Where the farm track bends today, the Roman road continued in a straight line and gradually cut into the terrain. A cross-section of the road taken about 50 meters before the edge of the slope revealed that the cut already had a depth of just over two meters. Within this cutting, the road width was reduced to just under three meters.

About 3,500 meters before the beginning of the cut, excavations uncovered a Roman burial site on the southern side of the Via Belgica, dating from the second half of the 1st century or the early 2nd century AD. The burial of the dead in close proximity to a major road—and the marking of the grave with a gravestone or even an elaborate tomb structure—was common and popular in Roman times, as evidenced by examples from across the Roman Empire.