Xanten - St. Viktor

The Romans built up a castrum around 15BC. Around 110 AD the town that had developed around the camp was given the rights of a colonia, that was named Colonia Ulpia Traiana. The colonia became the second most important commercial post in "Germania Inferior", surpassed only by Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne).

Today Xanten hosts one of the largest archaeological open air museums, built at the site of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana.

The first christian buildings may have been oratorys built over a Roman graves. A first church existed 752. A convent developed. As it was believed to have found the graves of Saint Viktor and his companions, all members of the Theban Legion, the places was called "ad sanctos" from which the town´s name "Xanten" derived. The construction of a larger church started, but it got destroyed by Norman invaders, who had hibernated on a near island in the Rhine river, in 863.

Bishop Folkmar of Cologne consecrated a new church here in the second half of the 10th century. This church was restored after fires in the 11th and 12th centuries. From 1128 a choir was erected, that was consecrated by Bishop Rainald von Dassel. Between 1180 and 1213 the western facade had been erected upto the third level.

The erection of today´s church started in 1263. After 281 years of construction it was finally completed in 1544.

St. Viktor, often named "Xantener Dom" ("Xanten Cathedral"), was the center of the convent, that developed to a city in the city. It was completely surrounded by a wall and could be entered only through two gates.

The old crypt under the choir, where the relics of "the saints" were venerated over centuries was hit by a bomb during WWII. The crypt got rebuilt with a lot of concrete and now the victims of the Nazi terror is remembered here. Thousands were killed in the concentration camps "Bergen Belsen" and "Dachau".