Oppidum of Manching

The Oppidum of Manching was a large Celtic proto-urban settlement near modern Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Germany, founded in the third century BC and abandoned by around 50 to 30 BC. At its height in the late second century BC it covered 380 hectares and housed an estimated five thousand to ten thousand people within its walls, making it one of the largest settlements north of the Alps. It is the most substantially excavated oppidum in Central Europe, with about 26 hectares explored by 2002, and its finds include a third century BC golden cult tree, a large hoard of Celtic coins, and fortification walls built in both the murus gallicus and Pfostenschlitzmauer styles; the settlement appears to have declined gradually after Caesars conquest of Gaul rather than being destroyed by force.