Outside the Marschiertor in Aachen
I left the city of Köln or Cologne to go to the western city of Aachen. It is actually very near the Belgian border but my current destination is Aachen. I know that they have a famous cathedral here and that would be my main purpose to come here but I wanted to see if there is more to Aachen than just the cathedral. It seems that this city has strong ties to Emperor Charlemagne. I am not at all familiar with the history of Charlemagne but it seems that he was a very important character that I still remember the name. I remember reading about him in children’s books but I don’t remember any of the details. Apparently, Emperor Charlemagne was born in the city of Aachen and when he ascended the imperial throne, he made Aachen the capital of what would be known as the Carolingian Empire.
Detail of the Gate of the Marschiertor in Aachen
As you can tell, there is a lot of history to be had here. What I noticed though, signs here are normally all in German, there would be a small smattering of English but generally it is difficult to understand what you are seeing. A lot of information, I would have to look up after the trip to get a better understanding of what I saw. The actual historical sites are still a bit of a walk away and I had to rely on Google Maps to point me in the right direction. It seems to be straightforward enough but before that, I saw that seems to be a historical site which is much nearer the train station. This was Marschiertor. Back then, Aachen used to be surrounded by city walls for defense. The walls are punctuated by several defense towers to make it easier to see the enemy.
Going in the Marschiertor in Aachen
The Marschiertor is one of two remaining defense towers in Aachen. From the looks of it, it seems to be in very good condition. I notice that it has a rather exaggerated roof which seems to be common in German historical buildings. Although it was a defense tower, it was mainly used to store weapons. These days, the tower serves at the headquarters of the city guard. I’m not what they actually do but it sounds important. The current tower, while preserved remarkably well, didn’t seem to be maintained enough to look like it is the current house of the city guards. In fact, it looked like the tower didn’t seem to be in use. Perhaps they are only headquarters there in name and it doesn’t actually get used.
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