Trier Citytour Hotels

The Porta Nigra. Usually sightseeing of Trier starts with the main of the sights – the Porta Nigra, which in Latin means 'the black gates'. The Porta NIgra is the northern gates that were built in 180 AD and served as a part of the city wall. The wall is 6,5 km long, 3 m thick and 7,5 m tall. Their name the gates got later, when the sandstone, which used the Romans used, became black by age. Since 1028 in the Porta Nigra was secluding hermit Simeon, the trustee of archbishop of Trier Poppo. Monk's cloister was situated at the ground floor of the eastern tower. It had no windows and the entrance was walled up by the order of Simeon. Soon after the death the hermit was canonized and the Porta Nigra was rebuilt into St Simeon's Church. That's why, actually, the gates managed to remain untouched.

For centuries the Porta Nigra had various functions. The gates between the two towers were filled with soil. The street outside the city obliquely rises to the 1st floor, where took place the lower church for simple people. On the 2nd floor, closer to the sky, you'll see the cloister's church. Despite all this, people called the Porta Nigra devil's construction, because it was built without cement or mortar (which was usual for the Romans).
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