Places I Went: Friday, May 20

The posting of this has been delayed due to us not having an internet connection for the last few days while we were in Verdun:

Places We Went: Friday, May 20

Triere: Triere is a German city that was once the seat of the Emperor Constantine’s government. We went on a walking tour. Here are a few interesting things I saw:

This is the Black Gate. It was built by the Romans and Survived because it was built into a church that was later demolished by Napoleon due to his love of the Romans. According to our guide it was originally a light yellow but within a thousand years pollution within the city had blackened it. The black coating protects it from modern pollution. It was apparently possible to climb up it but we did not.

            On our way to the marketplace we saw a really neat building called the House of the Three Kings.

            It’s named for the Wise Men who brought the baby Jesus gifts and came form the east. Our guide said the design was Moorish and the designer had probably been a religious pilgrim. The door midway up is the main entrance, the door and window on the bottom were not original. Originally, the door could only be accessed via a retractable ladder. While the city wall was under construction the house could serve as a fortress. 

            The marketplace was a mixture of old and new. There were well preserved buildings and modern stores, like a Subway restrauran and modern clothing stores.

            In the market house where Karl Marx grew up. Underneath it is a Euro store, sort of like a dollar store. According to our guide many Chinese people come there to see the house. If the Euro store is like our dollar store they are bringing goods for it to sell.

            We saw what was once Constantine’s audience hall which has now become a Lutheran Church. Constantine was the Roman Emperor who made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.

 It is 67 meters long, 26 meters high and 33 meters high. It has no columns inside. I can only post an outside photo because photography is forbidden inside.

           There were also the ruins of Roman baths. These have tunnels under them and cost 3 Euros to enter. Most people in our group went shopping instead. At 2:00 we left for Luxembourg.

Written by Aaron Sauve.