Base Camp Trier (From History to Modernity: Petrisberg Route)

You start the hike at the Porta Nigra and walk across the city along numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites to the Kreuzweg intersection, corner of Kurfürstenstraße. Almost 120 meters of elevation initially lead partly over stairs up the Kreuzweg. The reward for the little effort is an impressive view of the city and the wide Moselle valley. At the chapel above the Kreuzweg, you see the 133-meter-high TV tower. Continue straight ahead to the Jean-Paul-Sartre-Promenade. From here, a detour to the gardens of partner cities as well as the garden and recreational facilities of the 2004 State Garden Show with the Luxembourg Tower (free entry) is worthwhile. For children, a water playground in Petrispark is appealing.

Back again, follow the tree-lined avenue “Beim alten Weingarten” to the left. A very special experience is the 700-meter-long Finnish track on the right side of the road, whose surface consists of sawdust, wood shavings, and wood chips – for pleasurable and joint-friendly walking.

You pass the water tower, the wind harps, the measuring station of the German Weather Service, and finally reach the Petrisberg viewpoint. Here the oldest city in Germany lies at your feet. Especially striking: the red tiled roof of the Basilica of Constantine, the arena of the Amphitheater, the mighty ruins of the Imperial Baths, and the towers of Trier Cathedral. After these impressions, follow the footpath downhill, past Saint Clare Monastery. At the “Hotel Petrisberg” (where the federal chancellors Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt already stayed) there is a serpentine path through the forest down into the valley. From the “Hotel Petrisberg,” continue down the street to the Amphitheater and from there back to the Porta Nigra.