Intro Part I (Elderhostel Tour) Part II (Liguria & Lake Como) Part III TRIER Tuesday, 12 October.We left the Biwer's house at 10 a.m. to head for Trier. Randy stayed behind. It was another gloomy day, but showed signs of brightening. As we neared Trier, there was a great view of the Mosel River far below. In central Trier we found a place to park at the tourist office, right next to the Porta Nigra (c.180 A.D.). This is the biggest and best preserved Roman city gate in the world. We had been here before, in 1961, and seen some of the Roman ruins, including the Porta Nigra and the baths. However, the old center of the city now bore little similarity to what we had seen then. Trier was badly damaged in World War II, and most of the restoration work wasn't done for 10 or 15 years after our earlier visit. We spent half an hour walking along Simeonstrasse, the wide pedestrian street leading south from the Porta Nigra to the Hauptmarket. Then we rushed back to catch a bus tour of the old city.
Unfortunately, it was an open bus, and the weather was cool and windy. The bus more or less followed the old city walls. It drove from the Porta Nigra, past the Simeonstift (abbey) to the Mosel, then turned south along the river on Krahnenstrasse. We passed the old cranes (one from 1454, another from 1774) that give the street its name. The cranes have moveable roofs, each powered by pulleys connected to an enormous treadmill driven by human muscle power. Then came to the Roman Bridge. Only the stone supports on which the bridge rests date from Roman times (about 150 A.D.). Turning east away from the river along Kaiserstrasse, we passed the Barbara Baths. Built in the 2nd Century A.D., these were once the second largest hot baths in the world, but very little remains today. The ruins were used as a quarry for building material. A few blocks further along, we came to the Imperial Baths, begun by Emperor Constantine in the early 4th Century but never finished. Proceeding a few hundred yards outside the old walls, we came to the Amphitheater, the oldest Roman ruin in Trier (before 100 A.D.). It had a seating capacity of about 20,000 spectators.
Driving north and then back inside the old city, we passed the Elector's Palace (17th-19th Century). Adjacent to it was the huge Basilica (c. 300 A.D.), once the throne room of Emperor Constantine, but later converted into a church. Continuing down the narrow streets of the old city, we drove by the house (1727) where Karl Marx was born in 1818.
Turning north back toward our starting point, there was the Frankenturm (about 1100; restored 1938), actually a Roman-style residential tower, like a modern apartment house. In those days, each house had to defend itself, so it looks like a fortress. Originally, the only entrance was a window on the second floor, accessible only by ladder. We also drove through the Corn Market, now more of a traffic bottleneck than an open air market.
The bus dropped us off near the Porta Nigra, and we set out for a more leisurely stroll down Simeonstrasse. After a brief stop for bratwurst and juice, we admired the many old buildings along the pedestrian street. One was called the "Three Kings House," originally built in 1230 as a residential tower (like the Frankenturm) but completely remodeled in the 19th Century. The name comes from a painting of the Magi once located there.
Further on, we explored the Hauptmarkt, surrounded by picturesque old buildings, with the tower of St. Gangolf Church (15th Century) high above. The "Steip" (1454) was another important building. Next door was the Red House (17th Century). The square was filled with vendors' stands under large umbrellas. There was an elaborate fountain (1595) on the site of a simpler Roman one.
Turning back toward the Porta Nigra, we detoured half a block to the Cathedral. The present Cathedral stands on top of a former Constantine Palace. In 330 A.D., after Constantine's last visit to Trier, the palace was leveled and replaced by the then largest Christian church in the world. It was four times as big as the present church, covering the area of the Cathedral, the Church of Our Lady, Cathedral Square, the adjoining garden, and the houses almost up to the Hauptmarkt. The south part of this huge Roman church was torn down around 1200 and completely replaced by the Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche), the oldest Gothic church in Germany. The Romanesque Cathedral sits on the north part of the old Roman church, but it has been destroyed at least three times, most recently in World War II. Each time it was rebuilt to a different plan. Even today, while only a fourth of its original size, it is a huge church. It houses an important relic, Christ's seamless robe.
We retrieved the car about 3:30 and drove southwest along the Mosel. There was a lot of barge traffic on the river, but it seemed very serene. We had planned to visit the more northern villages of Darrell's ancestors today. By now the day was partly sunny and very pleasant. Unfortunately, there was less than an hour and a half to take advantage of it. We managed to visit four additional villages, as well as to return briefly to one we had visited earlier. We were back in Woustviler by 6:15.
[NOTE: No description of the visits to the ancestral villages is included in this journal. They are only briefly mentioned to show the chronology of our travels. Eventually they will be summarized in more detail in my genealogy pages.] There we had our last dinner with the Biewers. We said good-bye to Ute, who would be going to work before we came down the next morning. |
