In the city of Trier in the Rhineland-Palatinate Land, southwestern Germany

 “Germany, in the summer, is the perfection of the beautiful.” – Mark Twain

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(in southwestern Germany) The city of Trier in the Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), lies on the right bank of the Moselle (Mosel) River, surrounded by the foothills of the Eifel, Hunsrück, and Mosel mountains, east of the border with Luxembourg. The Romans arrived at the Moselle River in 17 BCE and established Augusta Treverororum. Roman influence collapsed in the 5th century, and the city became part of the Frankish kingdom of Clovis. The city’s strategic position at a crossroads contributed to its rapid rise as a commercial and administrative center; it was the capital of the Belgic division of Roman Gaul in the 2nd century CE, an imperial seat in the 3rd century, and later, as Treveris, the seat of the emperor responsible for Gaul and Britain. After it became a bishopric in the 4th century, the town was a center of Christianity north of the Alps. Trier was designated an archbishopric in 815, its archbishops becoming temporal princes with power over extensive territory; they were made electors of the Holy Roman Empire in the late 12th century.

+ Trier has preserved more Roman monuments than any other German city. They include the 2nd-century Porta Nigra, a fortified town gate; ruins of 4th-century Roman baths and substructures of baths from the 2nd century; the amphitheater (ca. 100 CE) ; and the basilica, with the throne room of the Roman emperors, and the nucleus of the cathedral, both from the 4th century. Both the Porta Nigra (depicted here) and the basilica were converted into churches in the Middle Ages but have since been restored. The cathedral, largely Romanesque, was rebuilt in about 550 and extended in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. Other notable churches include the Church of Our Lady; the Church of St. Gangolf; the Abbey Church of St. Matthias (1127–60), with the tomb of the saint; and the Baroque Church of St. Paulin (1734–57), designed by Balthasar Neumann. Trier’s Roman monuments, the cathedral, and the Church of Our Lady were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986. Civic monuments include the Market Cross from 958 and the Peter’s Fountain;, both in the market square; nearby are the Kesselstatt Palace and the Electoral Palace. The Catholic theological faculty, part of the university founded in 1473, was refounded in 1950. The city is also the seat of the University of Trier (founded in 1970). It also contains the Rhineland Museum. Trier is the birthplace of St. Ambrose, who converted and baptized St. Augustine, and of Karl Marx (1818), the German political philosopher and socialist. It was occupied by the French in 1797 and was formally ceded to France in 1801. Trier passed to Prussia in 1815, and the bishopric was reconstituted in 1821. The city grew rapidly in the 19th century but was occupied by France again after World War I and was damaged in World War II. It was revived as a commercial and cultural center after 1946 and was rebuilt.