Ursulinerstraße – The Forum of Roman Aachen

The name Aquae Granni, the Roman precursor of modern-day Aachen, points to Roman Aachen’s greatest asset: its hot springs! The mineral waters were quickly believed to have healing powers. Granni refers to Grannus, a Gallic deity associated with health and recovery. The earliest thermal baths date to around the turn of the millennium. From the outset, the Romans envisioned Aachen on a grand scale: even at its founding, the town had the air of a true city – 30 hectares in size, with wooden houses, thermal baths, and even a stone bathhouse with tiled roofs.

A City Growing Around Its Baths

In the early second century, Aquae Granni underwent a complete urban renewal. Emperor Trajan may have intended to elevate the vicus to a regional capital – a theory supported by stamped bricks and an inscription bearing his name. The original baths made way for a monumental square of more than 6,000 square metres, likely containing a forum and temple. Across the city, monumental new bath complexes were built.

Aquae Granni became one of the Roman Empire’s leading wellness centres and the only major spa in Germania Inferior.

The Forum at Ursulinerstraße

At Ursulinerstraße, the forum—the civic and administrative centre of Roman Aachen—can still be glimpsed through a glass panel in the floor. The panel reveals the southeastern perimeter wall of the central square, dating from the 2nd–3rd century, which forms part of the back of the reconstructed columned arcade in the courtyard. This view provides a tangible connection to the monumental urban redevelopment of Aquae Granni, showing how the forum once anchored the city’s public, political, and social life.

Discover Roman Aachen on the VIA VIA Route, 2027

The glass panel at Ursulinerstraße is a highlight of the VIA VIA Roman City Walk route of Aachen, linking the museum’s exhibit in Centre Charlemagne to the city’s archaeological remains. Along this themed trail, visitors can explore how Aquae Granni was structured and governed, with the forum serving as a clear example of Roman urban planning. Other sites along the route—such as Roman walls and floors in the Elisengarten or the Münsterthermen inside Aachen Cathedral—complement the view at Ursulinerstraße, offering a vivid sense of daily life, administration, and civic culture in Roman Aachen.

Are you ready to take a walk?

“‘The city smells of rotten eggs,’ Julia grimaces. My daughter is right. The thermal baths of Aquae Granni may be healing, but their sulphurous stench is unbearable. It doesn’t seem to bother the bathers, though. Our cart moves forward at a crawl through a crowd of shuffling people and wagons piled high with wood. ‘Most of it is for the baths,’ says a dark-skinned man walking beside us. ‘Every day, the thermae and the underfloor heating of the rich devour another piece of the forest. The baths heal the body, but not nature,’ he sighs, before vanishing again into the throng. Quintus Iulius has come up with the idea of bottling the spring water and selling it at the markets of Germania Inferior. Personally, I’m just looking forward to sliding into the warm water for a few hours — and talking with people from all corners of the Empire. Perhaps I’ll overhear some news about the situation in Rome. They seem to change emperors every few months this year. Murder and decapitation — not even the most curative water can wash that away.” – Ammulva Iucunda