Trier in the Olden Days

Here’s a guy who’s seen and done it all: the Konstantin Basilica. It began life as a throne room for Roman emperors, was inhabited by kings during the Middle Ages, was taken over and turned into a palace by archbishops in the 12th century, became a Lutheran church in 1856, and was bombed during WWII. While it still functions as a protestant church, it seems to be more of a scrapbook of all of its past lives.

View from the street

To give you some size perspective: the entire Porta Nigra can fit in here with room to spare. The Roman emperor would have sat in the area behind the arch (on his throne, of course).

I admit, I was only moderately excited about going to see the “fine collection of Roman funerary monuments” in Trier’s Archaeological Museum. But I have to say, they were pretty interesting. Each monument is decorated with scenes and images that illustrate important parts of the deceased’s life. What’s cool is that the decorations are very human. They portray scenes from everyday Roman life, not static symbols.
This guy, for example, was a tax collector:

Roman family funerary monument. Mom, Dad, and Son. The way that the man and woman holding hands indicates their partnership as husband and wife.

This handshake is from another monument, but I liked the detail.

This is actually a copy of a huge funerary monument that is in a village near Trier. If you were a wealthy and important citizen, you got a big monument. All of the monuments would have originally been colorfully painted like this one.

Lots of kegs of wine, sailin’ down the Mosel river. I'm guessing this ship is from the monument of a wine merchant? The background for this piece reflects how archaeologists think the road to Trier might have looked in Roman times.

I got caught up in the mosaic floors again, too. They are so hypnotizing to see up close. All those little, irregular pieces of color! It's like the inverse of a stained glass window.

Wow

Beauty

12th century lion says, "What's so great about the Romans? I'm interesting, too! See how my tail looks like a leaf on a vine? That's neat, right?! Look at my protruding ribs-nobody gives me any love. Roar."