Hiking Hub
Hiking Hub Trier
is not only one of the oldest German cities; it is also one of the historically most important. Today, it is an important hub for a number of longer hiking trails in the area: the Rheinsteig, the Eifelsteig, the Saarsteig are all less than an hour away by train. It is also a feeder trail of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela aka the Way of St James or the Jakobsweg.
But in late antiquity, it was in all but name the capital of the Roman Empire.
There are several buildings in today’s city that bear witness to this era, with the Porta Nigra – part of the ancient city wall which was built around 200 AD – easily the most visible.
Around 400 AD, Trier had more than 100,000 inhabitants, as many as today, and was the largest European city north of the Alps, but in the centuries after, Trier gradually lost this eminent status to upstarts such as Paris and London.
Most buildings in Trier’s Old Town therefore speak of the town’s history as a prosperous, but essentially provincial town of respectable burghers and traders.
