Irgenhausen Castrum

Irgenhausen Castrum is a Roman fort in Irgenhausen, Switzerland. It was a square fort, measuring 60 metres (197 ft) in square, with four corner towers and three additional towers. The remains of a stone wall in the interior were probably a spa.

Geography

The castrum is situated on the Bürglen hill in Irgenhausen, a village of the municipality of Pfäffikon in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Bürglen (Swiss German: "small castle") is a 25 metres (82 ft) high drumlin, 400 metres (1,312 ft) from the eastern shore of Lake Pfäffikon, situated between Pfäffikon and Kempten, the site of another Roman settlement nearby.

History

In the Roman era, along Pfäffikersee there was a Roman road from Centum Prata (Kempraten) on Obersee–Lake Zürich via Vitudurum (Oberwinterthur) to Tasgetium (Eschenz) on the Rhine. To secure this important transport route, the castrum was built. The native name of the fort is unknown: Irgenhausen was mentioned in AD 811 as Camputuna sive Irincheshusa, so maybe the castrum's name was Cambodunum, the Roman name of the neighboring village of Kempten.