TREVES, a city of Rhenish Prussia; on the Moselle; in a valley between low vine-covered hills of ruddy sandstone; 69 miles S. W. of Coblenz and 111 S. S. W. of Cologne. The river is crossed here by an eight-arch bridge, 623 feet long, whose Roman piers date from 25 B. C. "A quiet, old-fa,lhioned town, Treves," Freeman says, "has a body of Roman remains far more numerous ard varied, if not individually more striking, than any other place north of the Alps can show." These include the "Porta Ni gro," 118 feet long, and 95 high, one probably of the five gates by which Treves was entered in Constantine's time; the so-called Roman baths (more proba bly part of an imperial palace) ; and a basilica built of Roman brick by Con stantine for a court of justice, but de molished in great measure to make room for an electoral palace in 1614. This, however, was removed, and the basilica fitted up for a Protestant church in 1856. Beyond the walls are the ruins of an amphitheater that could seat 30,000 spec tators; and 6 miles off is the "Igelsaule" or "Heidenthurm," a monumental column, 71 feet high, sculptured with bas-reliefs of the 2d century. The cathedral of SS. Peter and Helena is an interesting struc ture of various antiquity, but chiefly in the early German Romanesque style of the 11th century. The most famous of its relics is the seamless or "Holy Coat," which consists of "connected fragmentary particles of material." Said to have been brought to Treves by the Empress Helena, it is first referred to in 1100 by an anonymous monk, and was not a source of revenue till 1512. It was visit. ed by nearly 2,000,000 pilgrims in 1891, the first time of exhibition since 1844.
A "Holy Coat" is also shown at Ar genteuil and in 19 other places. Con nected with the cathedral by a cloister is the beautiful Liebfrauenkirche (1243) ; and there is a library of over 100,000 volumes and many MSS., among them the "Codex Aureus" of the Gospels, present ed to the abbey of St. Maximin by Charle magne's sister, Ada. A university, founded in 1472, was suppressed in 1798. The industries comprise manufactures of woolens, cottons, and linens, besides a brisk trade in corn, timber, and Moselle wine. Pop. about 47,000.
Treves, which claims to be 1,300 years older than Rome, derives its name from the Treviri, a Gallic or, more probably, a Belgic people, who in Cmsar's time inhabited a large district between the Meuse and the Rhine. Their capital, Augusta Trevirorum, seems to have be come a Roman colony in the reign of Au gustus, and ultimately was the head quarters of the Roman commanders on the Rhine, and a frequent residence of the emperors, especially Constantine. Sacked by Attila in 451, it passed to the Franks in 463, to Lorraine in 843, to Germany in 870, and back to Lorraine in 895, and was finally united to Germany by the Emperor Henry 1. The Archbishop of Trevei was, as chancellor of Burgundy, one of the electors of the empire, a right which originated in the 12th or 13th cen; tury, and which continued till the French Revolution. The last elector removed to Coblenz in 1786; and Treves was the capital of the French department of Sarre from 1794 till 1814, since which time it has belonged to Prussia.