The wooden benches of the "Lusoria Rhenana" are less graceful. As we cast off from the dock, the oars get a little tangled up in each other and we learn our first lesson: the distance to the person in front is not exactly ample on a Roman ship. The Romans of the 4th and 5th centuries were apparently not the bones - even if the Roman emperors most likely saw it differently. "This gets better," Captain Dieter Heim calls out to us, standing upright like a figurehead in the bow, navigating and setting the beat. And indeed. After a few strokes of the oars, the 30 members of the music club with which we are traveling today on the "Lusoria Rhenana" find the right rhythm that now carries the ship across the Setzfeldsee lake in Neupotz near Germersheim in the southern Palatinate. Dieter Heim used to have to give orders in the German armed forces, but today people love his charming commands, which ensure safety on board, but also entertainment. He was there from the beginning when the ship was built and launched in May 2012 with the support of the Germersheim district. "The project was an idea of our district administrator Dr. Fritz Brechtel, which was born back in 2008," Heim recalls. The district of Germersheim has about 50, often beautifully renaturalized quarry ponds - and this extraordinary lake landscape needed to be better utilized for tourism. The preparations took more than two years. From the idea to the felling of the trees to the laying of the keel. The ancient historian of the Universt.t Trier, Prof. Dr. Christoph Schäfer, already had extensive experience in experimental archaeology and could be won as scientific director for this project. In January 2010, the Germersheim Association for the Promotion of Art and Culture started to rebuild an ancient Roman military ship true to the original and floatable. The "Lusoria Rhenana" is a work of art. Keel, frames and planks are held together by around 4,000 hand-forged iron nails. The "Lusoria Rhenana", with which we are now gliding ever more rapidly across the Setzfeldsee, is 18 meters long, just under 2.80 meters wide and has a mast about nine meters high, which can be fitted with a sail measuring a good 20 square meters. "Matthias Helterhoff, our boat builder from Usedom, selected the eight trunks of sessile oak in a patch of forest near the Johanniskreuz forestry office at the time and assembled the ship with the help of numerous volunteers," says Dieter Heim, squinting merrily in the bright sunshine. "The ship is ideal for team building," the passionate Lusoria captain knows, and you can tell that the "Lusoria Rhenana" has become something of a life's work for him. "We form a community of interests on board, so to speak, are open to ideas and wishes of our guests and have the common goal of a special experience that creates completely new perspectives." Teachers have discovered the Roman ship as a "floating classroom," but the Lusoria has also been booked for wine tastings and even wedding ceremonies - in cooperation with the local registry office. The "Lusoria Rhenania" is a work of art. Keel, frames and planks are held together by around 4,000 hand-forged iron nails. The construction cost around 300,000 euros, which was financed by donations. During scientific test runs in 2011, a top speed of around six knots was briefly achieved with a well-rehearsed rowing team, and even seven knots under sail, which corresponds to around 13 kilometers per hour. In order to obtain comparable data on the ship's maneuverability, flow behavior or handling characteristics, the hull of the ship was also built on a scale of 1:3 and scientifically tested at the Potsdam Ship Research Institute, in the 250-meter-long "indoor towing channel." The approximately five tons of weight can be set in motion by a maximum of 24 oarsmen, up to 30 people can be seated on the "Lusoria Rhenana". To ensure maintenance and care, the "Association for the Promotion of Environmental Education and Roman History" was founded, which uses the ship as a platform to convey history in an experience-oriented way - and to point out the importance of the sensitive natural area of the Palatinate Rhine floodplains. With huge success - people love the Roman ship. In one year, 25 club members row with 7,000 people on 270 trips across Lake Setzfeld. Slowly, we drift across the water now. "Back there is my favorite spot," says Dieter Heim, pointing to a small island around which we are now steering the Lusoria. A wonderful calm and a special magic lie over the lake as rare Common Terns suddenly sail over our heads. "This is pure idyll here," the captain enthuses. "We already have a particularly livable and lovable region here, where you can not only work well, but also live very well and enjoy your leisure time." The metropolitan region has many such places to offer, he says, where creative ideas form an ideal symbiosis with almost untouched and harmonious nature. However, it was not always so harmonious here. Ships like the "Lusoria Rhenana" were used by the Romans in the 4th and 5th centuries as patrol ships to secure the border against the onslaught of Germanic tribes on the wet Limes Rhine. The warships of the type "Navis Lusoria" were fast and agile. Again and again, the passionate hobby historian tells exciting stories about the Roman times during his trips, sometimes presenting a long sword or sestertii with the emperors of the era. Not far from the lake, the "barbarian treasure" was found in a quarry pond - "an area full of history". Like the entire metropolitan region. http://lusoriarhenana.de For more exciting stories, visit: www.wosonst.eu