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Aquae Granni

The Latin words Aquae Granni or Aquis Granum which means "the water of Grannus" was used as a name for Aachen at least as early as 972, and probably for centuries before that.

Did the Romans name this location after a Celtic god?  Some people say this doesn't make any sense.  Because it was the Celts in 54 B.C., who defeated the Romans near Aachen.  A fact the Romans would like to forget as quickly as possible.




Today in the center of Aachen, in the Buchkremerstrasse, you can find an ancient Roman dedication stone, which is inscribed to "Health Giving Fortuna and Protector of This Place".  Fortuna was the Roman replacement for the goddess Stirona / Sirona.
Celtic and Roman Aachen
Healing Waters and Holy Places

Roman soldiers at the hot springs in Aachen
Romans discover the hot springs in Aachen
A  fresco by Alfred Bauer in the stairwell of the Aachen town hall

Fresh clear water that bubbles up out of the earth and captures the falling sunlight, has always captured the attention of man.  They approach with reverence, places where the earth opens and waters pour forth like a never ending blessing.  For only there where plentiful water can be found, does life spring forth.  And where it meets the light of day in a bubbling stream, long experience shows that the water has a very special properties.  Usually these properties are special healing powers that can be used by man.   Therefore he holds the locations in great honor.  From time immemorial these waters have been holy.

The Celtic Water God Grannus

These experiences often find religious expression.  The people of classical times lead at the healing powers of water came about through the actions of the gods. They believed that the artesian well was a home to a God, for whom they sacrificed and builds temples.  This is what the pre-Germanic Celts were doing, around 400 B.C., a people that lived in the area from the Alps to the ocean.  They said to themselves: where water in great amounts comes forth from the earth, must also be found some kind of activity at out a God.  In many such places the Celts honored mother Earth, for they could very well imagine a God of water springs as being female.  Aachen was a very special place.  Here the water comes out of the earth warm and containing sulfur, up  60°C.  In such a cold climate that can be very nice.  You can even make the sick healthy.  For such springs and for such healing, there is a special God and the Celtic lands a popular God called Grannus, and apparently this was the case for Aachen as well.  It was important to get this God on your side, so that the spring would not dry out and so that you can continue to use its healing waters.  And this can so often be found with the celts, they set up a sacred space around the Springs, such as one often found in the holy groves of trees familiar to us from druidic customs.  And this is probably what was first done in Aachen as well, the small grove of trees that sprang up near the well was regarded as holy, and the Celts placed there a statue of Grannus, who watched over the spring.  Later as happened in other areas a small wooden temple was probably built.

Many times Grannus was accompanied by female spring and fertility god named Stirona or Sirona.  Representations of this goddess often showed her carrying fruits and sheaves of grain and with a crescent moon on her forehead.  Even though in the cathedral district of Aachen today, we have found no evidence of the cult of Grannus and Stirona, much suggests that they would have been found here as well.

In the Old God Grannus Is Out

Seen through the eyes of a Roman, the formerly sacred space of the grove of Grannus looked a little bit strange.  So the Roman author Lucanus writing about places like this from the viewpoint of a conqueror, tended to look down upon them: "Water flowed out of dark springs, and there stood plainly and without any decorative elements carved wooden idols, spooky and half rotten..." and in the same rough manner the Roman legionaries treated the Celtic holy water God.  For their new bathing facilities, they cut down the sacred grove dug up the bottom of the screen and covered it with a thick layer of clay.

Long Live the New "Grannus"

Yet despite this destruction of the Celtic sacred space , the Romans were religious.  And they continued to tend to the old religious traditions of the water God.  They too believed that they could not avoid trying to appease the water gods.  Only the name and appearance of their heavenly interlocutor changed.

Water Nymphs

So it is that the Romans believed in good fairies which they called nymphs, who were the patrons of those areas over which they carefully watched, where water most blessedly poured forth from the ground.  Pious Romans carefully constructed an ornamental pool around the thermal spring in order to protect the valuable water.  And with the walls that went up about this at the same time they built and ornamental sacred building called a Nymphaeum.

The God of Health Apollo

The popularity of the water increased.  Soon the baths were also open to civilians.  A second bathhouse became necessary.  It was built on the location where the Aachen cathedral stands today, and the water for the new bathhouse came from the Nymphaeum described above.  The two bathhouses did very well and soon luxury became apparent.  The wood and half timbered buildings of the beginning, changed to the very comfortable stone constructions.  With the increased prosperity in general, the comfort that could be offered to the gods also increased and so new more powerful gods showed up.

Temple to Apollo at Aachen Germany
Reconstruction of Temple to Apollo at the Aachen Springs

The grounds are of the old holy spring are rejuvenated, making up in total an area about 50 m x 50 m.  Four colonnaded arcades approximately 9 m long make up the borders of the inner space.  Beneath the arcades, bathing (spa) guests find protection from the sun, rain, and snow and in their shadows there vendors set up stalls for shopping. Around 200 A.D. several new temples are erected in the middle of the bathing complex.  The largest is a building about 12 m by 10 m.  It houses a god, with whom everyone must get along, if they want to regain their health with the waters of Grannus.  Is no one less than the great Apollo, the patron of the muses and the arts, but also the god with the ability to heal.  In order to keep all the options open and not to ruin their chances, the Romans at the same time in the old-fashioned way, tried to appease the previous tenant of the holy spring as well and gave Apollo the second name of "Grannus".  People who were offering up prayers are only needed to step up two steps and they stood in the entryway to the house of the god, in a hall that was just 2 1/2 meters deep.  The actual dwelling spot of the god Apollo was behind that, in a room which opened to the northeast and had thick walls, covered on the outside were in bright red plaster.

Altar Stone Apollo Aachen Germany
The altar stone dedicated to Apollo

Perhaps one can imagine Apollo's altar standing here, just as we have found it in a similar temple spring near Aachen.  A pious spa guest named Lucius Latinus Macer donated the altar, according to the inscription, between 120 and 130 A.D.  he is a citizen of Verona and was a high Roman officer.  As the highest ranking centurion he had served in the ninth Spanish Legion and later came as a prefect to the camp in Aachen.  In a desperate personal situation he had promised to Apollo, that he would give him an altar if he heard his prayers.  And Apollo heard him and earned the altar (Votum Solvit Libens Merito).

What is it that we can see on the altar stone? Aside from the inscription, it is filled with a figure sitting on a throne - Apollo.    On his back he is carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows.  With these far-reaching arrows he can bring sickness and death to man.  But whoever can make sake, can also heal.  In his hands however he carries symbols of a kinder fate.  In his left hand he holds a lyre, and the right a short stake made of ivory for playing the lyre.  This is how people called Apollo in cases of sickness, who was seen as the patron of muses and the arts.  The emperor Augustus supported the cult of his favorite god Apollo, the god that was the bringer of light to the world.  As the emperor of peace, as he saw himself, Augustus wanted to bring his empire quiet and harmony.  Even the military camps on the front, for example at the Rhine, he had built according to principles of harmony, according to the measurements of the golden rule.  If we take this principle and transfer it to a military camp of Aachen, we find that the mathematical center of the camp is near the cathedral springs.  It is exactly on this spot but a very special holy object must have stood.  And what could be more meaningful than a temple, in which the Roman trinity was celebrated: Jupiter, Juno and Mercury?

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Roman Religious Policy

Taking over what existed before:

The Romans did not come to missionize.  They wanted to conquer lands, civilize them, and exploit them.  They had already taken their pantheon of gods for the most part from the Greeks and given them Roman names.  The soldiers also wanted good relations with the native gods, whom they also honored.  So the Romans equated the foreign gods with their own or simply expanded the pantheon.

Religious Practice:

The entire roman day was strongly influenced by the heavenly powers.  Romans believed, that all is then so influenced by the will of the gods.  Nothing private or official remained unaffected.  One had to carefully avoid causing the gods anger.  These gods demanded honors through prayers, sacrifices, and dedicatory offerings.  It often seemed as if every task in daily life had its own patron god.

It was also especially important for the Romans to call upon the right god in the right spot.  If they did not know exactly whom they should call, then they honored the protective spirit of the area called genius loci.