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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;chrisild, post: 894662, member: 39&quot;]Last year&#039;s piece from the Unesco Cultural Heritage series featured various historical buildings in Trier:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.deutsche-sammlermuenzen.de/bmf/art/shop/goldmuenzen/gold_2009_100_euro_trier.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>On the left, near the word &quot;Römische&quot;, you can see the Porta Nigra (which means Black Gate). You can download a larger image here: <a href="http://www.bbr.bund.de/nn_21470/DE/WettbewerbeAusschreibungen/Muenzwettbewerbe/Ablage__AbgeschlWettbewerbe/UNESCOWelterbeR_C3_B6mischeBaudenkm_C3_A4ler/1Preis__Bild,property=poster.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.bbr.bund.de/nn_21470/DE/WettbewerbeAusschreibungen/Muenzwettbewerbe/Ablage__AbgeschlWettbewerbe/UNESCOWelterbeR_C3_B6mischeBaudenkm_C3_A4ler/1Preis__Bild,property=poster.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbr.bund.de/nn_21470/DE/WettbewerbeAusschreibungen/Muenzwettbewerbe/Ablage__AbgeschlWettbewerbe/UNESCOWelterbeR_C3_B6mischeBaudenkm_C3_A4ler/1Preis__Bild,property=poster.jpg</a> (That large image is from the design contest; the actual coin has the artist&#039;s initials instead of &quot;XY&quot;.) Note that this view of the monuments is a combination; the tower above the Porta Nigra, for example, is a Roman column in a suburb of Trier.</p><p><br /></p><p>The city of Trier is considered to be the oldest city (in the sense of a big civil settlement) in Germany. For some time in the 4th century it was even the main residence of the Roman emperor. So Trier did, and still does, have quite a few Roman buildings/monuments. Some of them, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aula_Palatina" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aula_Palatina" rel="nofollow">Aula Palatina</a>, &quot;survived&quot; because they were later turned into Christian buildings.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Porta Nigra was also used as a church for several centuries. For that purpose, one of its Roman towers was made lower; for the church only one tower was needed. After 1800 the Porta Nigra was rebuilt again and turned into its &quot;original&quot; state, except that one of the two &quot;towers&quot; is now lower than the other one ...</p><p><br /></p><p>Christian[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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