Trier

On Saturday, last weekend, we drove north and west to Trier. Trier is on the western boarder of Germany, close to Luxembourg. It is one of Germany's oldest cities - founded by the Romans in 15 BC! It lies on the Moselle River with the Eifel and Hunsruck Mountains on the other sides. It took less than 2 hours to get to Trier. We found a parking garage and when we came up out of the underground garage the amazing Roman Porta Nigra (Black Gate) was right there to greet us.

This amazing Roman structure was built in the 2nd century. It is held together only by iron rods and is black due to weathering over the centuries. The arched gateways disguised a design that allowed the Romans to trap anyone trying to attack the city in a central courtyard.

This is the entrance to the old middle ages Jewish district. The existence of the thriving and important Jewish community was first documented in 1066. It consisted of about 60 houses, a synagogue, a community center and other facilities. However, as is the case in so many cities in Europe, in 1418 the Jews were expelled from Trier.

Our next stop was a bakery for some coffee and cake, restrooms and a warm place to plan our day.

Starting back at the Porta Negra we began our tour of Trier.

This is the medieval Dreikonigenhaus (Three kings house).

The Hauptmarkt (main town square) is really beautiful. It is lined by beautiful old medieval and Renaissance buildings. They are truly magnificent!

The beautiful fountain in the Hauptmarkt is dedicated to St. Peter and the Four Virtues.

This corner building (with the red arches) is the Steipe, an old banqueting hall. It is now a restaurant (the one in which we enjoyed our coffee and cake) and a Toy Museum.

This intricate doorway leads to the Gothic St Gangolf Kirche (St. Gangolf Church). It was built in the 14th and 15th centuries, but there had been churches on this site since around 1000 AD.

Next we headed back to the Hauptmarkt and to the Dom. The Dom was built above the palace of Helena (the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine). It is said to be the oldest church in Germany - building started in 326 AD.

The famous relic in the Dom is the Heilege Rock or Holy Skirt (robe). It is housed in the shrine of the Sanctuary of Christ's Seamless Robe - a symbol of the unified church. It took some doing to find the story of the Holy Robe but here it is in brief...

Helena is said to have made several pilgrimages to the Holy Land. On one of these pilgrimages she is said to have brought back the robe that Christ wore when he was crucified. It is an apparently seamless garment and she gave it to the magnificent church her son built to keep and protect. Whether this story is true is, of course, not certain. The first written mention of the robe is in the 12th century - quite a long time after Christ's crucifixion. It is fun, though, to imagine...

Right next to (practically attached) the St. Peter's Dom is the Liebfrauenkirche. It is also very old and was built on a previously existing Roman church. It was hard to capture the feeling of this amazing church on the inside. It is almost a "theater in the round" feel. There are 12 pillars that represent the 12 apostles. Classical music was playing and the light filtering through the stained glass gave it an amazingly holy feel.

The entry, however, has in its statues symbols of anti-semitism. Compare the two outer statues - the one on the far left symbolizes the Christian church - her crown is royal, her vision clear, her sceptre and scriptures intact. The statue on the far right, however represents Judaism - her crown is askew, the Torah is upside-down, her sceptre is broken and she is blindfolded.

Some excavation of the Roman ruins of the original church on this site.

Our next stop was the Konstantinbasilika. It was built in 310 AD as Emperor Constantine's throne hall. It is enormous! 67m long and 37m high. The roof is completely self supporting - the interior is completely open! An amazing architectural feat for 310 AD! This amazing building later was the residence of Trier's prince-electors. It is now a protestant church and the simple interior reflects that.

Our next stop was the buildings that remain of the prince-elector's residence - right next to Konstantinbasilika. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens which, I'm sure, are much prettier in summer.

Next we walked to the Kaiserthermen - the ruins of a huge bathing complex built by Constantine.

We continued walking to the Amphitheater. This huge outdoor arena once held 20,000 spectators - watching gladiator tournaments! The boys thought this was really neat! We also got to go down into the cellar - dripping wet and extremely creepy - it was once used to keep prisoners, caged animals and corpses! The amphitheater is now used in summers for open-air theater.

Time for a Doner!

These Roman ruins were discovered by accident as they were building a parking garage. Now they are protected by a large glass cube and are being excavated.






And more Roman thermal bath ruins - the Barbarathermen. Much of this was destroyed when stones were removed in the 17th century and used to build a school.

In 1818 Karl Marx (author of Das Kapital) was born in this house in Trier.

The Moselle River.

The Romerbrucke across the Moselle River - built at the site of a 2nd century bridge - most of the bridge pylons are from that original 2nd century bridge.

Trier is an absolutely beautiful city! We had a wonderful day and enjoyed the many tangible reminders of the deep, rich, long history of Germany.