Trier Part II – The Basilica

Some things, like the Porta Nigra, stand unchanged through centuries and are a snapshot in time. Other places have been built, altered, updated, destroyed and rebuilt again over the ages to the point that every part of the structure speaks of passing years like a textbook in stone. This would be the Trier Basilica. For me, it shares two major things with the Porta Nigra. One, the Romans built it and two, it changed my understanding of what the world used to be. My imagination can barely keep up and I love it. 

The Basilica brought home just how enormous the Roman empire truly was. I’m not sure why the Porta Nigra and the Baths didn’t strike me this way, but perhaps the Basilica did because it started out as an intended imperial assembly and ceremonial hall for Constantine, complete with a rounded, raised apse for a throne. I always imagined the seat of Rome in, well, Rome. But seeing the Trier Basilica and knowing just how far north Trier sits were like gears of two cogs in my brain finally lining up. In an age where cars and phones weren’t even a concept, somehow the Roman empire controlled over 1.9 million square miles. 

But all that aside, let’s talk about the Basilica itself.

When we stepped inside, my jaw about dropped. We’ve visited a couple of castles so far and I was surprised in each one by how close the rooms felt. I think movies influenced me to expect larger dining rooms and audience chambers. The Basilica laid to rest my growing concern that I’ve had things all wrong. 

Its ceiling soars 108ft or 33 meters high, making the wooden squares in the ceiling design look like a tic tac toe board. Yet those squares are 10ft by 10ft apiece. In other words, each one could be the ceiling of a single small room! The place is massive, earning the title as the largest, undivided room still standing from antiquity. Today it’s gray and white brick, holding a solemn, reverent feel, but originally it was opulent. The brick used to be covered by marble all the way up to the bottom of the lower windows. And below the floor is a massive heating system similar to the Roman baths. (We’ll talk about one of the baths in Trier next week.) The Roman’s heated that insanely huge room in a time when heating was not commonplace.

The Basilica boasts so much more detail but this is not intended to be a history blog and I want to avoid descending into textbook boringness. Let’s just say it passed from Roman throne room into decay, was rebuilt and turned into a district court by the Frankish kings, then became the Archbishop’s residence in the Middle Ages, complete with palace wing additions, and then transitioned into a church in the 19th century only to be destroyed again during WWII and then subsequently rebuilt back into a church. Whew, that’s a mouthful!

Tidbits of Writing Inspiration

Since this is an ALT post about the things that inspire me to write, let me touch on a couple of the tidbits that lodged in my brain as possible story fodder for later.

One hides in the decay that happened after Rome fell. You see, the heating system below the floor of the Basilica isn’t just pipes. 4-foot-high pillars support the floor and essentially create an open, many-pillared room below. (I’ll explain the heating system better next week.) When the Basilica began to fall apart, the floor caved in, leaving those pillars and the pit below the floor open. In that space, the Trier people turned it into a marketplace. For some reason, the picture this creates in my head fascinates me. 

The second tidbit is similar in that it comes during a time when the Basilica was destroyed. During WWII, the allies bombed the city and the resulting fire consumed the building despite efforts to save it. Apparently, the water from the firefighters only reached about halfway up the walls. The crazy part, and the part that could add poignancy to a scene, is that the fire storm burned hot enough to rush through the pipes of the organ and play it while the building burned. As the saying goes, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. And in my case, it will certainly feed my future fictional writing. 

Blessings,

Jennifer

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