Stoned and ruined in Trier

I made the mistake of asking Ian for a title for this post and this is what he came up with. I may not ask him again!

We caught an early train to Trier but it is a long way from Wiesbaden so it was 10.30am when we arrived, via Mainz and Koblenz. We headed for the tourist information centre at the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) and booked into a walking tour for 1pm before setting off to have a look at some of the sights.

We walked down Simonstrasse, past the Dreikonigenhaus, a nobleman's residence built in 1230, where the entrance door was well above the ground, only reachable by a retractable ladder - a medieval safety feature!

We crossed the market place and visited two very different churches. The first was St Gangolf's, a Gothic church with delicately painted ceilings, lots of religious statues and a chapel at the back with an Indonesian theme.

The second was the Cathedral (or Dom) and it was on a much grander scale with a combination of styles from 4th century Roman through to 18th century Baroque. There were numerous side altars, tombs and memorial statues as well as a very impressive organ. This cathedral claims to have the holy relic of Christ's robe and that is housed in a special chapel in the east choir.

Before returning to the Porta Nigra for our tour, we had a walk around the market where we bought some cherries and, after strolling back down Simonstrasse, we shared a piece of pizza and a piece of chocolate-topped cherry cream cake for lunch.

The guide for the walking tour, Rosemarie, met our group of sixteen at Porta Nigra and commenced by telling us the history of that remarkable building. It gets its name from its black colour which has been caused by a build-up of grime over the ventured nothing since the end of the second century AD when it was built as a massive fortified gate. It was converted into a church around 1040 and restored to its original appearance by Napoleon after 1804.

We walked back to the market place as Rosemarie told us about various medieval buildings that we passed and then we stopped at the Basilika. This huge building was constructed by the Emperor Constantine in 304AD and is one of the largest roofed buildings to survive from the Roman Empire. It later became a Protestant church for the prince-electors whose Baroque palace we saw next door.

Prince-Elector's palace and gardens

The tour ended there and we walked through the palace gardens to the Kaiserthermen. These Imperial Baths are now only ruins but they cover a vast area and we enjoyed walking through the maze of passageways below ground. They were built by Constantine and were amongst the largest in the Roman empire. Apparently they were never completed nor used for their original purpose.

Our last stop in Trier was at the Viehmarktthermen or Forum Baths. They are the smallest and oldest of Trier's Roman baths and the ruins have been preserved in a glass building, together with the remains of a monastery and medieval drainage works which were uncovered at the same time, when the site was being excavated for a city building.

We had great day in Trier, enjoying a different style of medieval town and some very impressive Roman ruins. We arrived back in Wiesbaden around 8pm and then packed for tomorrow's move to Nuremburg.