Over 1600 years ago, the Romans built one of the grandest and most impressive baths in the world: the Imperial Baths. People bathed naked (not always separately), could engage in sports, sit in cold and hot baths, swim, get a massage, have the body hair removed by tweezers or wax, and be cleaned with the help of scrapers, pumice stone, or fermented urine. They could relax, gamble, do business, go to the hairdresser’s, libraries, reciting rooms, or pubs. 

When you enter the Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen, fee) you will first come to the hot water bath (large enough for present-day theater and opera performances complete with stage, orchestra, and 650 seats). The incoming cold water was heated in altogether six boiler rooms, four of which are visible in the 19m (62 ft) high ruins which later served as a part of the medieval city wall. The 40° C/104° F hot water was then conducted into the three semicircular pools for the bathers. A hollow-floor heating system heated the pool floors as well as the rectangular central part of the vaulted hall. You can descend from here into the underground service tunnels and then continue to the cold water bath. The sports grounds are located outside the enclosed facilities.

The Basilica of Constantine (German: Konstantinbasilika), or Aula Palatina, at Trier, Germany is a Roman palace basilica that was built by the emperor Constantine (AD 306–337) at the beginning of the 4th century.

Today it is used as the Church of the Redeemer and owned by a congregation within the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. The basilica contains the largest extant hall from antiquity (see List of ancient roofs) and is ranked a World Heritage Site. The hall has a length of 67 m, a width of 26.05 m and a height of 33 m. It is designated as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Aula Palatina was built around AD 310 as a part of the palace complex. Originally it was not a free standing building, but had other smaller buildings (such as a forehall, a vestibule and some service buildings) attached to it. The Aula Palatina was equipped with a floor and wall heating system (hypocaust).

During the Middle Ages, it was used as the residence for the bishop of Trier. For that, the apse was redesigned into living quarters and pinnacles were added to the top of its walls. In the 17th century, the archbishop Lothar von Metternich constructed his palace just next to the Aula Palatina and incorporating it into his palace some major redesign was done. Later in the 19th century, Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered the building to be restored to its original Roman state, which was done under the supervision of the military architect Carl Schnitzler. In 1856, the Aula Palatina became a Protestant church. In 1944, the building burned due to an air raid of the allied forces during World War II. When it was repaired after the war, the historical inner decorations from the 19th century were not reconstructed, so that the brick walls are visible from the inside as well.

The Porta Nigra (Latin for black gate) is a large Roman city gate in Trier, Germany. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps.
The name Porta Nigra originated in the Middle Ages due to the darkened colour of its stone; the original Roman name has not been preserved.

The Porta Nigra was built in grey sandstone between 186 and 200 AD. The original gate consisted of two four-storied towers, projecting as near semicircles on the outer side. A narrow courtyard separated the two gate openings on either side. For unknown reasons, however, the construction of the gate remained unfinished. For example, the stones at the northern (outer) side of the gate were never abraded, and the protruding stones would have made it impossible to install movable gates. Nonetheless, the gate was used for several centuries until the end of the Roman era in Trier. It serves as an entrance to town.

In Roman times, the Porta Nigra was part of a system of four city gates, one of which stood at each side of the roughly rectangular Roman city. The Porta Nigra guarded the northern entry to the Roman city, while the Porta Alba (White Gate) was built in the east, the Porta Media (Middle Gate) in the south, and the Porta Inclyta (Famous Gate) in the west, next to the Roman bridge across the Moselle. The gates stood at the ends of the two main streets of the Roman Trier, one of which led north-south and the other east-west. Of these gates, only the Porta Nigra still exists today.

Founded by the Celts presumably in the late 4th century BC as Treuorum, it was later conquered by the Romans in the late 1st century BC and renamed Trevorum or Augusta Treverorum (Latin for “The City of Augustus among the Treveri”), Trier may be the oldest city in Germany.

The historical record describes the Roman Empire subduing the Treveri in the 1st century bc and establishing Augusta Treverorum in 16 bc.[citation needed] The name distinguished it from the empire’s many other cities honoring the first 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. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the five biggest cities in the known world with a population around 75,000 and perhaps as much as 100,000. The Porta Nigra (“Black Gate”) dates from this era. Also a residence of the Western Roman Emperor.

• Amfitheater Trier
• Basilica Aula Palatina
• Landesmuseum Trier
• Porta Nigra
• Thermen an Viemarkt
• Thermen Trier

Conímbriga is one of the largest Roman settlements excavated in Portugal. Conímbriga is a walled urban settlement, encircled by a curtain of stone structures approximately 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) long. Entrance to the settlement is made from vaulted structures consisting of two doors (one on hinges), and at one time was defended by two towers. The walls are paralleled by two passages, channelled to excavations, in order to remove water infiltration from the walls. The urban settlement consists of various structures such as a forum, basilica and commercial shops, thermal spas, aqueducts, insulae, homes of various heights (including interior patios) and domus (such as the Casa dos Repuxos and Casa de Cantaber), in addition to paleo-Christian basilica.

Like many archaeological sites, Conímbriga was evolved sequentially and built up by successive layers, with the primary period of occupation beginning in the 9th century; during this period the area was occupied by a Castro culture. Before the Roman occupation, the Conii peoples (who would later settle in southern Portugal) occupied the settlement. The Conímbriga designation came from conim, used by pre-European indigenous to designate the place of rocky eminence, and briga, the Celtic suffix meaning “citadel”. This site had become a junction between the road that linked Olisipo to Bracara Augusta, by way of Aeminium (Coimbra).

Around 139 BC, Romans began arriving in the area, as a consequence of the expeditionary campaigns of Decimus Junius Brutus. At the time, Conímbriga was already a built-up settlement. The Romans introduced the formal organization of space to the settlement. Owing to the peaceful nature of rural Lusitania, Romanisation of the indigenous population was quick and Conímbriga, inevitably, became a prosperous town.

Between 69 and 79 AD, during the reign of Vespasian, Conímbriga was elevated to the status of municipium. At that time, new urban programs were initiated. Judging by the capacity of the amphitheatre, by this time, the city had an estimated population of approximately 10600. Many of the new colonists came from the Italian peninsula (like the Lucanus, Murrius, Vitellius and Aponia families) and intermarried with local inhabitants (such as the Turrania, Valeria, Alios and Maelo families).

The Roman Ruins of Milreu, in the vicinity of Estoi, show that area was already populated in Roman times. The ruins were part of a Roman Villa from the 3rd century AC with adjacent buildings (a big noble house, agricultural installations, spa and temple).

One of the characteristics of this archaeological Villa are the mosaics, with geometrical and pictorial designs.

The Praetorium was the official residence of the Imperial Governor of Cologne, the capital city of the Roman province of Lower Germania. It is the city’s most significant official monument and the most important Roman palace on the banks of the Rhine. All along, the Praetorium was the centre of a systematic development and settlement of the city and region.Thus, it can be referred to as the political-administrative cradle of the region.
Of the monument, which dates back to a time around the birth of Christ and displays multiple building phases, archaeological remains of all epochs are preserved. In particular, the walls of the monumental palace dating from the fourth century are entirely accessible and visible. The building complex comprises a central octagonal room flanked by two rectangular halls and adjoining pillars, with apses. A gallery (the Portico), fronting enfilades faced east towards the Rhine while spacious courtyards stretched to the west, reaching beyond the border of the contemporary Archaeological Zone.
To date, the finds include pottery, a lavish decor of wall-paintings, marble wall decoration, flooring and mosaics; there are remains of monumental sculptures and inscriptions on marble, limestone and tufa, as well as significant finds of ceramics, glasses and fragments of other workshop artefacts.
At the close of the eighth century, an earthquake put an end to the historical development of the governor’s palace. Signs of the event are still clearly visible on the building in the shape of cracks and displacements. To document the earthquake that damaged and destroyed numerous monuments and buildings in Cologne, the Seismological Institute of the University of Cologne together with the Bensberg Seismological Station is pursuing a three-year research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
As the excavations at the Town Hall Square progress, each ‘Find of the Month’ is displayed in turn in the Praetorium’s exhibition hall.