En un regard
Le château en bref
The Oppidum du Fossé des Pandours, at the Col de Saverne, is a vast Gaulish stronghold of 160 to 170 hectares, attributed to the Mediomatrici and created, according to excavations, at the end of the 2nd century BC with no earlier Gaulish occupation. Its main rampart, a murus gallicus some 600 m long, combines timber beams, iron nails and a sand infill, with a facing of pink sandstone, in front of a ditch. It controlled a route between Gaul and Germania. Two wells yielded wine amphorae and potins struck on site, evidence of a mint. The site declined in importance after the arrival of Ariovistus and then the Augustan reorganisation, and a Roman road station (the Uspann) succeeded it on the Strasbourg–Metz road. Its present name recalls the occupation of the site in 1744 by the Pandours of Baron von Trenck. It has been listed as a supplementary monument historique since 1989 and has been the subject of university excavations since 1995 (S. Fichtl).