frauke at large

In light of my new found ‘holiday‘ state and a friend’s 30th birthday, I traveled to Trier on Friday. I vaguely remember visiting there with school once, as part of an outing with my latin class, but it’s always different when you go somewhere out of your on free will.

Trier is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, town in Germany dating from ca. 16 BC and is a significant place in terms of European history – Trier is in fact an old Roman city, which was founded under Caesar Augustus and became as important as Rome, due to it being the residence of the Western Roman Emperor Constantine the Great; in terms of philosophy and politics – it’s the birthplace of Karl Marx; and in terms of German culture – the romantic Mosel valley with it’s many vineyards …

The relicts of the Roman empire are scattered all around the city. The first image, in the background, depicts the roman Constantine Basilica, which was built as part of the Roman Imperial Palace and was given as a present to the Archbishop of Trier. The pink building in the foreground is the ‘Kurfuerstlicher Palast’ or electoral palace, which is now used for governmental purposes. The second image was taken in amongst the Imperial Roman Baths, constructed under the rule of Constantine the Great (306-337 AD). The final photos is the ‘Porta Nigra’, which was part of the fortified city contours. Originally there were four gates, one on each side of what was, in essence, a square city wall surrounding Trier, however unfortunately only the Porta Nigra has survived to this day.

  

I particularly liked the Roman Imperial Baths because of their architecture and the attention to detail which was paid constructing the arches and windows all over the buildings and underground pathways. I’m always amazed at the amount of effort which was put into assuring that everything had style, flair and beauty; for example that particular bricks were used to achieve specific patterns within bigger structures. When one looks at the majority of buildings that clutter up the landscape today, it’s a shame to see that money, speed and convenience has replaced a willingness to invest in architecture and style.

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