Jülich

Almost 2000 years of settlement history have left their mark on this square: since the Renaissance, the market of the town of Jülich has been located again at the site that was already the centre of the settlement in ancient times.

In the Middle Ages, the old market was located in front of the fort at the corner of the roads Düsseldorfer Straße and Kapuzinerstraße. However, after the great fire of 1547, the town had to be completely redesigned. In the process, the market was moved back to its original location as the centre of the town. During the construction of the old town hall, the Roman main road was uncovered there. Its further course is now marked in the paving of the market square. In the 4th century, the walls of the late Roman fort ran around the market – grey stripes on the four streets that lead off from the market today mark its former course. In total, there are more than two metres of settlement rubble here in the former centre of the Roman town.

The fort was used until the High Middle Ages. A Roman building stood on a section of the wall, from which the Romanesque Church of St. Mary's Assumption emerged. The Roman buildings were used as replacement quarries during this period: for example, a fragment of a Roman votive stone with a cornucopia relief can still be seen next to the side entrance of the church. On the base of a Jupiter column found in the foundations of the church, there is an inscription that mentions the place name Jülich for the first time: "The inhabitants of the Jülich vicus, the vicani Iuliacenses, erected this column to the supreme Roman god." The small columns in the tower hall, dating from around 1150, are made of "Kölsche marble" – a marble substitute made from the limestone deposits of the Roman Eifel aqueduct.