The reconstructed Celtic settlement of ALTBURG is the most well-researched and vivid witness to the lives of people living more than 2,000 years ago to the west of the Rhine. The Celtic settlement of Altburg is accessible as a barrier-free destination.

History: Among the most important ancestors of today's Hunsrück inhabitants include the Treverer, a Celtic tribe that dominated Hunsrück before the Roman conquest. In order to protect themselves against raids by Germanic tribes from the other side of the Rhine, the Treverer tribe build a range of fleets and fortified hilltop settlements. The furthest eastward hilltop settlement is the ALTBURG, which was founded around 170 B.C. and later abandoned around 50 B.C., evidently during a time in which Julius Caesar was concluding the Gallic Wars.

After the first trial explorations had been conducted on the ALTBURG grounds at the end of the previous century, the hilltop settlement was excavated from 1971 to 1975 and then subjected to extensive research.

According to our findings, the ALTBURG was rebuilt in the same state as it had existed in the last century before the dawn of Christianity. The Rhineland Museum in Trier (“Rheinisches Landesmuseum”), which led both the research and reconstruction efforts, also established the facility as an early historic open-air museum, in a similar style to the prehistoric stilt houses in the area of Unteruhldingen on Lake Constance.