It was around the year 16 BC when thirsty legionaires entered the Mosel valley to establish a new town in honour of Caesar Augustus. To give credit to the Celtic ‘Treveri’ tribe, who had erected a new settlement, the new town and future administrative metropole of the west roman province was named Augusta Treverorum. Many other German towns date back to Roman times, but only very few are as old or as extraordinary as the city of Trier.

Three Roman Emperors built marble palaces, Roman baths, a huge amphitheatre in which the Roman star gladiators would entertain the crowds, a hippodrome and the impressive black town gate, the Porta Nigra, which is one of the most photographed monuments in Germany.

The vineyards have always surrounded the city and each vineyard site has its own unique history, tradition and terroir.

In the pedestrianized market square, a Latin inscription on a red house claims that the house is older than Rome itself. This medieval poem underlines the pride of the city with its colourful and turbulent history. On a similar note is the biblical anecdote that has become an inherent part of the local lore: When Adam and Eve were created it was observed by curious spectators – the Treveri, of course.

Archaeologists date the first traces of human settlements back to the year 2500 BC and some suspect the enigmatic Assyrer Trebet to have erected the first urban walls in the area of today’s city. Though this chapter of pre-Roman times is not completely clear, the later development of the city is very much traceable through the erected buildings leaving the stamp of their particular sovereign. As a border city, Trier was constantly under siege from the Franks, Huns and Normans.

At the end of the 18th century Trier was annexed by Napoleon in order to serve as western outpost for the new Prussia.

The medieval town, which slowly grew bigger than the foundations of the Roman settlement, was only half the size that it is today. Due to many wars, periods of Black Death and at the mercy of its conquerors’ moods, Trier could only grow to its present number of inhabitants, 80,000, in this century. However, the newly found strength of the town is amazing. Within less than one kilometre between Porta Nigra and the old Roman Amphitheatre, the new pedestrian zone offers views of romantic gothic, baroque, rococo and neo-classical architectural styles. In the heart of the town, an alleyway called ‘Sieh-um-Dich’ (look around) is almost unnecessarily given this name with its hint at the abundance of visual treasures.

Underneath the picturesque streets of the town are the dimly lit coved cellars of the Episcopal Wine Estates. The oldest part of this humid labyrinth was erected in 1593 by the Jesuits. The newer part crosses with an extremely well preserved Roman water pipe that opens to the Emperor’s Bath. Above, in a former hall of the Friedrich-Wilhelm Grammar School, a pupil once wrote an essay about the vineyard Parable. It was 1835 and the tutors praised his early literary talent. They were truly amazed by his understanding of this revolutionary theory where the power of one leader is transferred to his disciples like the juice of the vine into its grapes. The choice of subject for this young son of a local solicitor seemed obvious, but when the pupil’s name is Karl Marx, historians give it a lot more weight.