Baroque fortifications in the Black Forest

Several of the schanzen had already been built at the time of the Thirty Years' War or integrated even older, sometimes late medieval fortifications into their system.

The extensive fortification system runs for over 200 kilometres (120 mi) through the Black Forest between the High Rhine in the south and Heidelberg in the north.

Especially well preserved are the works at the so-called Böllener Eck ("Böllen Corner") near Neuenweg, where there is a star schanze and a square redoubt that belong to the Forward Line.

The epitaph of the schanze commandant, Johann Marckloffksy von Zabrak, who died in 1691, is on the eastern side of the church at Neuenweg.

[1] Another important defensive line exists in the Wagensteig valley near Kirchzarten where, in the late 17th century, a system of redoubts, banks and ditches was built.

After the construction of the French fortress of Fort Louis on the Rhine north of Strasbourg towards the end of the 17th century, Louis William had the Bühl-Stollhofen Line built which ran from the fort through the Baden Rhine Plain to the Black Forest and, following its destruction in 1707, was replaced by the Ettlingen Line.

Thanks to the work of the firm of AG Minifossi at the Friedrich Ebert School in Schopfheim other schanzen were discovered so that, today, over 100 sites are known.

As part of its activities the project also supported the reconstruction of the schanze of Gersbach-Mettlen, where the Forward and Rear Lines divide.