History of Trier

Trier is originally a Roman city, founded in 17 B.C. and is the oldest city in Germany.It is only 80 miles from the famous Rhine River and was founded under Caesar August so it was named after him “Treverorum” and was later shortened to Treveri. A city wall was built around the town in A.D. 180 to protect the Romans from a Germanic invasion. The wall was 4 miles long and had 5 gates; remains today can be seen by the Amphitheater, the Roman Bridge (which is still the same) and the Porta Nigra (which is completely preserved). The Gate was butyl with stones that are held together by iron clamps without the use of mortar, in later years when the price of iron was really high people tried to chisel into the stones and steal the iron to see. The actual name of the gate has been forgotten so the name “Black gate” was given to it because of all the pollution that has been turning the stone black for years.

 In 293 it was named one of the 2 capitals of the Western Roman Empire along with Milan and by the 4^th century the population was 60,000 people, but by 485 the population dwindled down to 800 due to the Franks talking over politically. In 882 Vikings destroyed Trier and the city never recovered from there (until the 1970s).  The University was founded in 1473 and by 1522 the city was strong enough to withstand a siege by Franz von Sickingen, but was destroyed many times during the 30 year war and French war, causing many to flee the city and with this the University shut down.

In the Middle of the 18^th century architects and artists turned the city into a beautiful and prosperous place. But the French took over Trier in the 1790s and the entire area was incorporated into France, by 1900 the population got into the 50,000s but the First World War set Trier back again, it was bombed 22 times and with the second world war the town seems to be at an end. Nearly 40 percent of the town was destroyed and it was so poor that it could not rebuild itself.

Since 1970 the Universities have opened again and the population has grown to over 100,000 with lots of preservation and restoring. Today there are 20,000 tourists that visit the City each day!