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It’s a well-known fact that Trier is Germany’s oldest city, developed by the Romans on a Celtic settlement founded 3,000 years ago. During the Roman era it was a flourishing city and structures such as the Porta Nigra, the ruins of the emperor bath and an amphitheater can be visited today. But, did you know that Trier has a direct link to the city of Istanbul 1,500 miles further east?
After decades of civil war, Roman emperor Augustus promoted the infrastructure of his newly conquered provinces, including the area along the Moselle River. Augustus named the former Celtic settlement “Augusta Treverorum” and began constructing the capital city of the Western Roman Empire. The city quickly became a trading hub and an attractive residential area with a climate fit for cultivating wine. He had a wooden bridge built in the year 17 B.C. and the dark stone foundations of the bridge can still be seen today, known as the Römerbrücke (Roman bridge), Germany’s oldest bridge.
After a series of emperors, Flavius Valerius Constantinus was born about 277 A.D. in Niš (now in Serbia), as the son of Helena. He came to be known as “Constantine the Great” and was emperor of the combined Roman Empire from 306 to 337. A large and prestigious throne hall was built in his honor around 310 A.D. with mosaic flooring and a wall and floor heating system. The structure is 67 m (220 ft) long, 27.5 m (90 ft) wide and 33 m (108 ft) high, without any supporting pillars in state-of-the-art technology of the time. It is said that the hall was hardly used, eventually the roof collapsed, was restored and used as part of a palace, then developed into an enclosed housing area for decades, to finally be given to the Protestant church in 1856.
Trier’s mighty cathedral was built on the remains of a Roman palace, the Porta Nigra was the northern gate, today’s pedestrian zone was aligned with covered walkways and the city was built in a typical chessboard layout. A hippodrome for chariot races existed where the train station is today and the main connection road in east-west direction called Via Maximus led to the Roman bridge for river transport and can still be clearly made out from Petrisberg with a grand view over the city. “Bread and Games” took place in the amphitheater and women enjoyed steaming baths and massages at the thermal Barbara Baths. Treviris was a bustling commercial hub along Via Agrippa which connected Lyon and Metz to Cologne via Mainz (Mogontiacum). At the height of its power, the city was the largest Roman settlement north of the Alps with 75,000 inhabitants.
Constantine the Great resided in “Treviris” from 306 to 316 A.D., left a gigantic footprint (in front of Porta Nigra) then traveled eastwards via Rome and eventually conquered Byzantium at the Bosporus Strait to strengthen the eastern part of the empire. He declared the city as the Eastern capital and renamed it Constantinople. It is noted that Constantine was rather liberal towards the new Christian religion and may have converted to Christianity. In any case, shortly before his death there in 337 A.D., he laid the foundation of the “Hagia Sophia” as a church, formerly used as a museum and now a mosque in modern Istanbul.
By the way, Istanbul is the Turkish word for “Constantinople,” slang “Stambul,” that changed its name under Atatürk in 1930, when it lost its status as capital and switched from Arabic to Roman writing. The city of Trier is now offering a virtual reality tour to step into the lives and bustling times of the Romans.
