Hardly any other district in Frankfurt is as green as the Riedberg.

Almost a third of the area of ​​this new district in the north of the metropolis is made up of parks and green spaces.

On Saturday, after the Bonifatius and Kätcheslach parks and the topographical path, one last long, narrow green corridor was opened to the public: the Roman road.

With a length of 1.4 kilometers and an average width of 35 meters, the green area is larger than the Hafenpark am Main.

It offers space for three playgrounds, smaller so-called play points, a fitness facility and a calisthenics facility, which the local advisory board had explicitly requested for young people and students and which - as can be heard in the district - is already very popular.

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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What is special about the entire green area is that it was designed to be barrier-free, including the individual play equipment.

For Rosemarie Heilig (Die Grünen), head of the environmental department, Roman Strasse is the “first barrier-free park in Frankfurt”.

Where a street has to be crossed, vehicles are slowed down by a step, while visitors to the green area can pass unhindered at ground level.

At the request of the residents of the district, parts of the green corridor are also illuminated: primary school pupils at the nearby Marie Curie School should be able to use Roman Street to get to school.

The green area, which was laid out by the Berlin office of Weidinger landscape architects for 6.5 million euros, got its name because it actually follows the route of the old trade route between the Roman settlement of Nida - today's Heddernheim - and the Saalburg in the Taunus.

As Andrea Hampel, head of the municipal monuments office, reported, not only traces of the former military road were discovered in the ground when the area was developed, but also the skeleton of a Roman who was apparently once buried next to the road.

A bronze coin from the 2nd century provided information that it must have been a Roman, a 43-year-old man, as we now know.

In general, according to Hampel, the Riedberg is an "archaeological gain" for the archaeologists because of the numerous finds.

End of 30 years of development

For the head of the urban planning department, Mike Josef (SPD) and the head of the traffic department, Stefan Majer (Die Grünen), who together with Heilig had invited people to take a walk along the green corridor, the completion of the Roman road above all represents the end of the road von Majer completed the structural development of the Riedberg from the city side.

"With the handover of this green area, a 30-year development also comes to an end," said Josef.

Since the 1990s, the Riedberg has accompanied urban planning and urban development in Frankfurt as one of the largest urban developments in Germany.

Thousands of apartments have been built, more than a dozen daycare centers and several schools, including the Riedberg Gymnasium.

The Riedberg also has the largest student residence made of wood.

The three city councilors proudly point out that the district was already designed in the planning phase to be ecological, sustainable, taking into account the fresh air corridors and in the sense of a so-called sponge city.

Especially in the parks and thus also in the Roman Road green corridor, meadows with hollows have been laid out that collect rainwater and thus keep the soil moist for longer.

In addition, 90 types of wood, which are considered “climate trees” such as hackberry and sweetgum, medlar and bird cherry, have been planted in the hollows.

Irrigation is not planned because it will not be necessary.