Tourist information

Trier Facts

Trier is located ad the western border of Germany, near France, Luxembourg and Belgium

Trier has been founded in or before the year 16BC by the Romans under the name Augusta Treverorum, and is Germanys oldest city. It is also  the oldest seat of a Christian bishop north of the Alpes. In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Trier was an important ecclesiastical prince, as the Archbishopric of Trier controlled land from the French border to the Rhine. He was also one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sightseeing

22 Monuments, 11 Churches, and 6 Museums. Trier has many to offer to its visitors and you can spend several days for discovering the city in all its facets. The Tourist Information of Trier has prepared tours for how to discover Trier in one, two, and three days.

If you follow the link "Trier condensed in one day" from the dropdown list you will find a sample walking tour of  approx. 2 hours and which will take you seven of Trier's famoust monuments.

Monuments

Porta Nigra (Black Gate)

The Porta Nigra, the Roman city gate, was built in the 2nd century AD. It was built of sand stone without mortar. Instead the stones were kept together with iron clamps. The name itself origins from medieval times and goes back to the black pollution patina on the gray sandstone.

The Porta Nigra is on the list of UNESCO's world heritage.

Note: Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
For security reasons, the Porta Nigra may be closed in dangerous weather (ice and snow).

House of the Three Magi

The house has been built around 1230 when Trier's medieval city wall was not yet finished. As each house had to defend itself, it was accessible only by ladder or a wooden staircase that could be pulled up. The doors on street level are modern. Trier still has six such Romanesque residential towers, the Frankenturm being the oldest.

Main Market

The Main Market was the center of medieval Trier. There you can see

• the Steipe, the city council's banqueting house
• a reconstruction of the city yardstick
• the pillary (a reconstruction, too)
• access to the Cathedral
• access to the Jewish quarter
• access to six streets alltogether

It moved to this place from the river after the Viking destruction.

Trier Cathedral

The Cathedral stands on top of a former Constantinian Palace. The place was leveled in 330 and the palace was replaced by the largest Christian church in Antiquity, about four times as big as the present-day church. Today's Cathedral still contains a Roman central section with the original walls rising up to a height of 26 m (86 ft). The huge fragment of a granite column next to the entrance to the Cathedral is another indication of the Roman origin of the building. After destructions in the 5th and 9th centuries, the remaining nucleus was enlarged by Romanesque additions - today, the Cathedral, with its three crypts, its cloister, Cathedral Treasury, and Holy Robe Chapel, displays architecture and artwork from more than 1650 years.

The Cathedral is on the list of UNESCO's world heritage.

Note: During the services and concerts it is not possible to visit the cathedral!

Roman Imperial Throne Room (Basilika)

The Basilika is on the list of UNESCO's world heritage.

Note: During the services and concerts it is not possible to visit the Basilika!

General Information about Germany

• Currency: Euro (1 € = 1.29 $US approx.)
• Standards: Metric system
  (miles->kilometers, feet->meters, pounds->(kilo)grams, etc.)
• Time format: Military (e.g., 6pm = 18:00)
• Numbers: "Decimal-point is comma" (for those knowing COBOL programming) and "dots" can be used for scaling (not mandatory).
  Example: "Two-Thousand-Twenty-Five and a tenth" looks like this: 2.025,10
• Phone code: +49
  For international calls from Germany using, e.g., public phones dial 00 (double zero) then the country code (except where noted).
• Time zone: CET (called "MEZ" in Germany)
  Germany uses the central european daylight savings time (DST).
• Power voltage: 230V AC, 50Hz