Hof – The Forum Portico 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 Portico at Hof

As part of this urban transformation, the forum became the civic and administrative heart of the city. At the Hof, you can see a reconstructed columned arcade wall marking the narrow side of the triangular square. The original wall—rotated by 90 degrees—once formed the forum’s portico, representing the final construction phase at the end of the 2nd century. Its distinctive architecture is unique north of the Alps, and the gutters below are made of original Roman material. This site provides a tangible link between the monumental public square and the city’s administration, showing how urban planning and civic life were closely connected in Roman Aachen.

Discover Roman Aachen on the VIA VIA Route, 2027

The Hof is a key stop on the VIA VIA Roman City Walk route of Aachen, which connects the museum’s exhibit in Centre Charlemagne to Aachen’s surviving Roman remains. Along the route, visitors can explore other archaeological highlights—from Roman walls and floors in the Elisengarten to the Münsterthermen inside Aachen Cathedral. Informative panels, multimedia displays, and encounters with Roman “characters” bring the city’s history to life, illustrating administration, bathing culture, urban development, and the late-Roman castrum. The columned arcade at Hof anchors this narrative, offering a direct view into the civic and administrative heart of Aquae Granni and showing how the forum shaped everyday life in the city.

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