Psychologische Praxis Aachen | Psychotherapie & Hypnose

About Aachen

Aachen ( AH-khən, German: [ˈaːxn̩] ; French: Aix-la-Chapelle; Aachen dialect: Oche [ˈɔːxə]; Latin: Aquae Granni or Aquisgranum) is the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 252,000 inhabitants. Aachen is located at the northern foothills of the High Fens and the Eifel Mountains. It sits on the Wurm River, a tributary of the Rur, and together with Mönchengladbach, it is the only larger German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. It is the westernmost larger city in Germany, lying approximately 61 km (38 mi) west of Cologne and Bonn, directly bordering Belgium in the southwest, and the Netherlands in the northwest. The Vaalserberg, highest elevation in the European Netherlands, with the three-country point on its summit, is located within Aachen's city limits. The city lies in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion and is the seat of the district of Aachen (Städteregion Aachen). The once Celtic settlement was equipped with several thermae in the course of colonization by Roman pioneers settling at the warm Aachen thermal springs around the 1st century. After the withdrawal of the Roman troops, the vicus Aquae Granni was Germanized by the Franks around the 5th century. This was followed by a period of sedentism under first Merovingian and then Carolingian rule. With the completion of the Carolingian Palace of Aachen at the transition to the 9th century, Aachen was finally constituted as the main royal residence of the Frankish Empire ruled by Charlemagne.