This is the oldest Christian church in the country. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 312 AD, his mother, Helena (now a saint), allowed part of her palace in Trier to be used as the first church on this spot. In 326 AD, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his reign, Constantine began to have two churches built: St. Peters in Rome and this huge Cathedral in Trier-also called St. Peters. There is also a large and intricate underground passage below this church that was only discovered in the last century. I went to the museum nearby that had all the models, artifacts and information about that labyrinth, but pictures were not allowed inside. AyothVirtualTours, Inc. apologizes for not getting those pictures at the museum, but the lady followed me around like a hawk. Anyhow in this video you can see several altars that line the nave. These are not dedicated to saints, but to bishops. These fancy altars were a fashionable way for the powerful archbishop-electors to memorialize themselves. Even the elaborate black-and-white altar at the back of the church (at the beginning of the video) is not a religious shrine, but a memorial for a single rich archbishop. His black 1354 tomb dominates the center of that chapel.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 13:37:24 +0000
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