Once a Major City --Now?

It seems that we are spending a lot of time on the bus.  Today we left the boat at a small town and drove a couple of hours so that we could meet the boat at Trier.  The only place the boat could dock was nowhere near the center of Trier, and if we stayed on the ship and sailed to Trier, we would not get to the city until evening.  Thus the time on the bus.

We quickly drove past the Ruins of a Roman amphitheater, bu all I could see was a grassy field.  More interesting was the Governor’s Palace facing a large park.  I am not sure what you would call the statues guarding the steps down to the park.  The palace was ornate with what our guide assured us, was real gold.

This is a catholic area, with only one Protestant church.  Originally it was the audience hall for the Roman official in charge of the area.  The building was meant to intimidate the locals whose buildings were made of wood.  This structure was made of over one and a half million hand-made bricks!  It was longer than 2 football fields, over 100 feet high and about 85 feet wide.  Anyone seeking an audience with the head honcho had to enter this edifice, walk slowly the entire length and kneel down before the official.  By then he was probably quaking in his boots and could not remember why he came.  Although it has had many uses and suffered various amounts of destruction, the building still intimidates.

Some of the million and a half hand-made Roman bricks.

We also saw the High Cathedral of St. Peter, the oldest church in Germany, built in Roman times.  It houses several relics, including the Seamless Robe of Jesus, the robe said to have been worn by Jesus shortly before his crucifixion. 

This was one of several “ecclesiastical” churches, not for the common people, so the merchants built themselves a church by the market square.  Its tower was higher than the official church.  Of course, that church had to add another steeple to top that one.

In all the cities we have visited, there once were strong walls surrounding the city.  However, in most cases, the walls were breached and subsequently torn down.  One small stretch of wall, or rather the gate of a wall still exists in Trier, and for a very strange reason.  This particular gate was not a gate as we envision a gate.  It actually was two strong stone walls connected by a building with rooms having windows looking down on the space between the two gates.  The outer gate was an iron "drop gate" which could be lowered to prevent entry into the town.  The  inner gate was thick wood.  If an enemy managed to get through the first gate, he was trapped in the space between.  The defenders, looking down from the windows above, could hurl rocks, garbage, or anything else they had on hand.  They also could pour boiling oil on the invaders.  It worked pretty well.  

A certain monk felt a calling to retreat to a room in the gate and remained there for the rest of his life.  Not too many years later, the Pope declared him a saint and the church took possession of the gate building.  They removed one of the towers, added height to the other and called it a church.  It is now an empty shell, but it did not get destroyed either by enemies or urban planners.

A town which has lasted for almost 2000 years has many styles of buildings.  Old buildings come down and new ones fill in the space.  New houses are attached to old, which creates a diversity of style and height. 

Sorry about the umbrella blocking the ground floor.

One building had an unusual feature -- no door on the ground floor!  The only way to enter the house was through the door on the floor above the ground.  (In Europe that is called the first floor.  In the US, that is the second floor.  Just another confusion of the languages.)  Entrance was by means of a ladder which could be pulled in to keep out unwanted visitors, or a husband who came home too late.

A more modern tall structure is the Sky Ride, a circular compartment that goes up on a tall central tower so you have a grand view of the city.  You would not have seen much when we were there.