The ancient Roman city Bodobrica, nowadays Boppard, has the finest preserved Roman fortification in Germany. The citadel was built in the second half of the 4th century and was meant to defend the left bank of the Rhine against invasions by German tribes. These tribes had driven the Roman army out of the right bank of the Rhine in 260 AD and the Rhine became the new frontier. The fort is 308 a metres long and 154 metres wide rectangular area with a total of 28 massive fortified towers. The wall of over 8 metres high is in an excellent condition and a remarkable testimony to the high degree of skills possesed by the builders.
Christianity arrived after the departure of the Romans at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries. When the Roman garrison was disbanded and the bath in the centre of the town were subsequently converted into a church. Its ancient baptismal font still survives. The present-day Church of St. Severus is the third to have been built on the same site and was completed in 1236. The late Romanesque church symbolizes the revival of Boppard as a prosperous Middle Rhine Valley town and its Roman fort confirms its ancient importance. The recently opened museum in the electoral castle (Kurfürsterliche Burg) tells the story of the town in the Middle Rhine Vally. (source and further information: www.museum-boppard.de, www.boppard-tourismus.de)