Trier

Trier (English Treves), city in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the Mosel River. The city is a main center of the Mosel wine region, a tourist destination, and a railroad junction. Manufactures include sheet steel, machinery, textiles, and leather goods.

Trier is the site of important Roman remains, including the Porta Nigra (a well-preserved gate), an amphitheater, an imperial palace, and baths. Among the medieval monuments of the city are a Romanesque cathedral whose chief treasure is the Holy Coat of Trier, said to be the seamless coat of Jesus, and the 13th-century Gothic Church of Our Lady.

Trier is one of the oldest towns in northern Europe. It was the capital of the Celtic Treveri, from whom it took its name (ancient Augusta Treverorum). Under the Romans it was the capital of the province of Belgica and later a frequent residence of the Western emperors until it was captured in the early 5th century by the Franks.

An episcopal see since the early 4th century, the city was made the seat of an archbishopric in 815. The archbishops of Trier were powerful temporal rulers, and from the 14th to the 19th century they were electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Under French rule from 1794 to 1814, Trier was the capital of the French department of the Sarre. In 1815 it passed to Prussia. In early 1995 Trier was flooded, as the Rhineland experienced its highest water levels in more than two centuries. Population (2005 estimate) 100,200.