Trier Audioguides

Trier was founded by the Romans around 16 BC as Augusta Treverorum and became, in the third and fourth centuries, one of four capitals of the Roman Empire. Emperors wintered here rather than Rome because the strategic position on the Moselle mattered. The Porta Nigra, the Black Gate, was built in the second century and is the best-preserved Roman city gate north of the Alps. The Aula Palatina, the throne hall of Constantine I, stands 67 metres long and has been in continuous use as a church since the Middle Ages. The Roman bridge across the Moselle, the Roemerbruecke, was built in the second century and still carries traffic.

Karl Marx was born at Bruckenstrasse 10 in Trier in 1818 and spent his early years here before the family moved to Bonn.

The Karl Marx House museum on the street of his birth is a thorough collection of his personal effects, manuscripts, and the history of socialist thought. The Archbishop of Trier was one of the seven Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, which made this small Moselle city one of the most politically significant places in medieval Germany. The Trier Dom, the Cathedral of Saint Peter, has been a place of worship since the fourth century and contains what is claimed to be the Holy Tunic, the seamless robe of Christ.