Aachen: Charlemagne’s spa city where three countries meet

Aachen is a legally recognised spa town that could call itself Bad Aachen, yet refuses to, because then it would no longer come first in almost every alphabetical list. It lies at the "three lands corner" in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet, and it was the favoured residence of Charlemagne, who lies buried in the cathedral he had built. This overview is adapted from the Wikivoyage travel guide to the city.

Aachen Cathedral, the Carolingian octagon. Photo: Traveler100, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikivoyage.

A spa, a cathedral and a university

Aachen was the preferred residence of Charlemagne, "Roman" emperor from 800 to 814 AD, whose realm covered much of modern Italy, France, Germany and the Benelux countries. The city's springs have drawn visitors since Roman times, and a number of historic baths and hotels are scattered around it. Its technical university made it a hub for modern technology and brought a large student population: over 40,000 of the city's 250,000 inhabitants in 2020.

The border shapes the region too. Aachen is the centre of the economic region called the Euregio Maas-Rhein; when people say "the Euregio" in the area, they mean this one.

Getting there and around

A day ticket called the Euregioticket covers most local trains and buses in the Aachen–Liège–Maastricht triangle.

Once there, the old town is best explored on foot. The city bus system (ASEAG) includes a few night lines. Aachen has no tram, U-Bahn or S-Bahn; the local euregio-Bahn line stops at several city stations. Cycling is possible but the town is hilly and not the most bike-friendly in Germany, and e-scooters from Tier and Voi, taxis and Uber are available.

What to see

Aachen Cathedral. Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikivoyage.

• Aachen Cathedral is one of the most famous examples of Western architecture. The core of its Palace Chapel was built around 800, and a Gothic choir (the "Aachen glasshouse") and the north and south chapels were added in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is a two-storey cathedral and the memorial and burial place of Charlemagne (814).
• The Cathedral Treasury holds ecclesiastical treasures from the Antique, Carolingian, Ottonian and Staufian periods, among them the Cross of Lothair and the Bust of Charlemagne.
• The Rathaus is the medieval town hall, where the mayor still has an office. The Grashaus, the original town hall completed in 1267, is one of the oldest buildings in Aachen.
• Elisenbrunnen, the Elisa Fountain, was built in 1827 and carries the spa town's thermal waters.
• City gates and old houses: the Ponttor (14th century), the Marschiertor (13th century), Haus Löwenstein (14th century) and the Couven-Museum, an 18th-century house with furniture.

Aachen city hall. Photo: Revathy.Santhanam, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikivoyage.

Elisenbrunnen. Photo: Frans Berkelaar, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikivoyage.

The guide also points to art and architecture. The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum has a collection of German and Dutch sculpture and painting. The Ludwig Forum for International Art holds contemporary work including pieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Keith Haring, with accompanying text in German and English. Around the RWTH Aachen campus at Templergraben, buildings in every style from 1900 to today stand close together; the guide singles out the Super-C reception building, built to resemble the letter C with its lower half underground, and the university hospital, a post-modern building the guide compares with the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Smaller museums include the Zollmuseum Friedrichs, about border crossings and the border, and the International Newspaper Museum. The Belvedere rotating water tower stands in Lousberg park.

Doing, learning and eating

• Outdoors: Lousberg is a recreational hill about 10 minutes' walk north of the centre with views over the city. The Carolus Thermen is a large, well-known spa, and the city has five public indoor swimming pools open all year.
• Events: carnival in spring; the CHIO international horse-riding championship in summer; and the Christmas market from late November until 23 December on Katschhof, Münsterplatz and the market square. The Pinkpop music festival is just over the border in Landgraaf in the Netherlands.
• Study: RWTH Aachen University is particularly strong in mechanical engineering. Language courses in term time are only for its students, but an international summer course each September is open to students of some partner universities, aged 18 or older with at least level A1 German.
• Food: Aachen is famous for Printen, a local gingerbread sold by bakeries across the centre; there are also two large factory outlets for sweets. Vaals, just over the border in the Netherlands, has all its shops open, which softens the effect of German opening hours.

Aachener Printen. Photo: CherryX, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikivoyage.

Safety and day trips

The guide calls Aachen one of Germany's safer cities on average and says pickpockets can target people out for a drink in the busy centre. As a border town, it adds, it sees some drug trafficking that does not affect visitors who are not involved.

Day trips named in the guide:

• Dreiländereck, the three-country border point about a 10-minute drive away near Vaals, where a visitor can walk on the soil of three countries in under a second; it is also the highest point of the Netherlands, with a watchtower to climb.
• Cologne, less than an hour away by train, and Liège, about an hour away by train.
• Maastricht, where the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union was signed in 1992.
• Monschau, a well-preserved medieval town, and the Nationalpark Eifel, the youngest nature preservation area in Germany.
• The Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, final resting place for 7,992 American military dead lost during the drive into Germany.

Sources

• Wikivoyage contributors, "Aachen", from Wikivoyage, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed here: rewritten in hubnx's own words and condensed; listings, phone numbers, opening hours and maps left out. Photographs: Traveler100 (CC BY-SA 3.0); CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (CC BY-SA 3.0); Revathy.Santhanam (CC BY-SA 3.0); Frans Berkelaar (CC BY-SA 2.0); CherryX (CC BY-SA 3.0).