Aachen Germany
Recent archaeological discoveries show that the region where Aachen is today was already inhabited before the year 2000 BC. In the first millennium BC, the region was inhabited by Celts.
At some point at the beginning of the following millennium (first millennium after Christ), the Romans began to build public baths in the region, aimed at military personnel, taking advantage of the typical thermal waters of the locality, which they called Aquae Granni. The first written record of the city's existence dates back to 765, when the Frankish king Pepin the Short referred to it as "Aquis villa", for its waters.
Its Germanic name, Aachen, derived from "aha" - "water", in Old Germanic; the Franks adapted the name to "Aix" - later renamed Aix-la-Chapelle, in allusion to the chapel (today, the Aachen Cathedral) built in the city, which became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, chosen by Charlemagne (who was probably born in Aachen in the year 742 and who died there on January 28, 814), having been the seat of the coronation of 32 emperors who succeeded Charlemagne, until the ceremony was transferred to Frankfurt, in the 20th century
Its political competitors were the cities of Rome and Ravenna. The first city, in political importance, and the second, in architectural and historical treasures.
Practically devastated by the barbarians in 881, it was rebuilt in 983, being razed again by a violent fire in 1656, and once again, in the 20th century, during the Second World War.
Aachen was, of all the cities in Europe, the most inhabited and visited by emperors, kings and statesmen. Several councils, synods and diets were also held there, and several political issues were resolved. Highlights include the signing of the treaty of May 1668, which put an end to the War of Devolution, between Spain and France, and the treaty of October 1748, known as the Peace of Aachen, which determined the end of the War of Succession of Austria, and also the congress of 1818, in which the evacuation of France by the allies was sanctioned, after the defeat of Napoleon.
From 936 to 1531, Germanic emperors were crowned in Aachen. The city was occupied by French troops in 1794 and later annexed 1801 by France, passed to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815 and, from 1918 to 1930, the city was occupied by the Allies as a result of the defeat of Germany in the First World War. During the Second World War, two-thirds of Aachen was destroyed by aerial bombing. It was also the first major German city to be liberated by the Allies, in October 1944.
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