Rheinisches Landesmuseum

The Archaeological Museum (Landesmuseum, fee) near the Imperial Baths has the richest collection of Roman finds in Germany; it is so rich, in fact, that only a small part of the collection can be exhibited. You will find art and artefacts from prehistoric, Roman, early Christian and medieval periods.

The inner courtyard, used as a storage place for sarcophagi, columns, capitels, paving stones, and building blocks is in itself worth looking at, if only because of the painted replica of the 23 m (76 ft) Igel Column (Igeler Säule, a Roman burial monument; the original is 8 km (5 miles) outside of Trier). On the inside, the series of burial monuments then displays patches of original Roman paint on scenes of everyday life in Roman times (school, hunting, hairdressing, feasting, dancing, rent collecting).

The museum displays magnificent mosaics such as a Roman chariot driver, an exquisite glass collection, the most valuable piece of which is the cage cup from Piesport-Niederemmel, pagan and Christian finds, and, above all, one of the top Roman coin collections worldwide. Stone-age, Celtic, Merovingian, medieval, and early modern artefacts and artwork round off the treasures of the museum.