Barbara Baths (UNESCO World Heritage)

We don't want to show off. But when it comes to the Baths of St Barbara, we have to admit it's a little difficult. After all, it's hard to believe the splendour that unfolded here, stone by stone, from the second half of the 2nd century onwards. The largest thermal bath complex in the entire Roman Empire - outside of Rome - stretched over around 42,000 square metres. This monumental size came at a high price. After all, wellness starts in the mind. And so marble Amazons modelled on Greek statues, the remains of columns and the bodies of young men (now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier) give an impression of how much artistic recreation was also indulged in at the Barbara Baths.

Unfortunately, most of it is now lost. Only a third of the original bathing temple has been excavated on the site. So you'll need a little imagination if you stand on the visitors' footbridge and lift your head up towards the treetops in an attempt to realise how high the buildings of the complex once towered into the sky. When you look across Südallee and Kaiserstraße to realise how far the entire site once stretched to the horizon. And when you imagine hundreds of human bodies walking across the area in your mind's eye to realise just how populated this hotspot for personal hygiene must once have been. By then you will understand why we had to show off a little at this point. Just a tiny little bit.