The first traces of human settlement in the area of the city show evidence of
linear pottery settlements dating from the early
Neolithic period. Since the last
pre-Christian centuries, members of the
Celtic tribe of the
Treveri settled in the area of today's Trier. The city of Trier derives its name from the later Latin locative for earlier . According to the
Archbishops of Trier, in the , the founder of the city of the Trevians is
Trebeta. German historian
Johannes Aventinus also credited
Trebeta with building settlements at
Metz,
Mainz,
Basel,
Strasbourg,
Speyer and
Worms. The historical record describes the
Roman Empire subduing the
Treveri in the and establishing about 16 BC. The name distinguished it from the empire's
many other cities honoring the first
Roman emperor,
Augustus. The city later became the capital of the
province of
Belgic Gaul; after the
Diocletian Reforms, it became the capital of the
prefecture of
the Gauls, overseeing much of the
Western Roman Empire. From 293 to 395, Trier was one of the residences of the Western Roman Emperor. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, with a population around 75,000 and perhaps as much as 100,000. The
Porta Nigra ("Black Gate") dates from this era. A residence of the
Western Roman emperor, Roman Trier was the birthplace of
Saint Ambrose. Sometime between 395 and 418, probably in 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture from Trier to
Arles. The city continued to be inhabited but was not as prosperous as before. However, it remained the seat of a governor and had state factories for the production of
ballistae and
armor and
woolen uniforms for
the troops, clothing for the civil service, and high-quality garments for the Court. Northern Gaul was held by the Romans along a line () from north of
Cologne to the coast at
Boulogne through what is today southern Belgium until 460. South of this line, Roman control was firm, as evidenced by the continuing operation of the imperial arms factory at
Amiens. The history of the relationship between the
Copts in Egypt and the city of Trier goes back to the second half of the fourth century AD, specifically the year 336 AD, when
Pope Athanasius I, the 20th Patriarch (328–373 AD), was exiled to this city by order of Emperor
Constantine the Great (25 July 306 – 22 May 337 AD). Pope Athanasius the Apostolic – born around 296 AD – spent his youth in clerical circles, namely in the episcopal residence in the city of
Alexandria. This upbringing made him well-versed in the affairs of church administration, immersed in an atmosphere rich with the purely pastoral and educational concerns of the popes. The
Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459. In 870, it became part of
Eastern Francia, which developed into the
Holy Roman Empire. Relics of
Saint Matthias brought to the city initiated widespread pilgrimages. The bishops of the city grew increasingly powerful and the
Archbishopric of Trier was recognised as an
electorate of the empire, one of the most powerful states of Germany. The
University of Trier was founded in the city in 1473. In the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residence to
Philippsburg Castle in
Ehrenbreitstein, near
Koblenz. A session of the
Reichstag was held in Trier in 1512, during which the demarcation of the
Imperial Circles was definitively established. In the years from 1581 to 1593, the
Trier witch trials were held. It was one of the four largest witch trials in
Germany alongside the
Fulda witch trials, the
Würzburg witch trial, and the
Bamberg witch trials, perhaps even the largest one in European history. The persecutions started in the diocese of Trier in 1581 and reached the city itself in 1587, where it was to lead to the death of about 368 people, and was as such perhaps the biggest mass execution in Europe in peacetime. This counts only those executed within the city itself. The exact number of people executed in all the witch hunts within the diocese has never been established; a total of 1,000 has been suggested but not confirmed. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the
French–Habsburg rivalry brought war to Trier.
Spain and
France fought over the city during the
Thirty Years' War. The bishop was imprisoned by Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor for his support for France between 1635 and 1645. In later wars between the Empire and France, French troops occupied the city during the
Nine Years' War, the
War of the Spanish Succession, and the
War of the Polish Succession. After conquering Trier again in 1794 during the
French Revolutionary Wars, France annexed the city and the electoral archbishopric was dissolved. After the
Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Trier passed to the
Kingdom of Prussia.
Karl Marx, the German philosopher and one of the founders of
Marxism, was born in the city in 1818. As part of the
Prussian Rhineland, Trier developed economically during the 19th century. The city rose in revolt during the
revolutions of 1848 in the German states, although the rebels were forced to concede. It became part of the
German Empire in 1871. The synagogue on was looted during the November 1938 and later completely destroyed in a bomb attack in 1944. Multiple have been installed in Trier to commemorate those murdered and exiled during the
Shoah. In June 1940, during
World War II over 60,000 British prisoners of war, captured at
Dunkirk and Northern France, were marched to Trier, which became a staging post for British soldiers headed for German
prisoner-of-war camps. Trier was heavily bombed and bombarded in 1944. The city became part of the new state of
Rhineland-Palatinate after the war. The
university, dissolved in 1797, was restarted in the 1970s, while the
Cathedral of Trier was reopened in 1974 after undergoing substantial and long-lasting renovations. Trier officially celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1984. On
1 December 2020, 5 people were killed by an allegedly drunk driver during a
vehicle-ramming attack. The Ehrang/Quint district of Trier was heavily damaged and flooded during the 16 July
2021 floods of Germany,
Belgium,
The Netherlands and
Luxembourg. File:Augusta Treverorum.jpg|
Augusta Treverorum in the 4th century. Model in the File:Porta Nigra morgens (100MP).jpg|
Porta Nigra File:Trier Stadtmodell.JPG|Scale model of Trier around 1800 File:Trier Dom BW 24.JPG|
Cathedral of Trier File:Trier Kurfuerstliches Palais BW 1.JPG|
Electoral Palace File:Trier, 07-12-2023 (actm.) 24.jpg| over the Moselle (detail to the north side) == Geography ==