Coverage Germany
Audio Guide Xanten
app, one-time €4.99
Xanten is one of the few places in Germany where a Roman city, a medieval town, and a Gothic cathedral occupy almost exactly the same ground. Built over the ruins of Colonia Ulpia Traiana, a Roman settlement of around 10,000 people, the town layers two thousand years of history into a compact, walkable centre.
14+ researched places in the app
Yes. Parroo is a self-guided audio guide for Xanten: 14 researched places, from LVR Archaeological Park Xanten to Cathedral of St. Victor and Kleve Gate, each with a short summary, a full article, and a roughly three-minute audio story in German, English, and French. Buy once, no subscription, no booking. Start whenever you like.
Audio sample: LVR Archaeological Park Xanten
Xanten
Places researched in this city
A selection of the 14 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.
- Gothic cathedral
- Roman archaeology
- Medieval gates
- Windmill
- Nature reserve
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01
LVR Archaeological Park Xanten
This 60-hectare open-air site sits directly on the ruins of Colonia Ulpia Traiana, a Roman city granted full citizen rights by Emperor Trajan around 98 AD. Reconstructed buildings including an amphitheatre and a harbour temple let you walk through what was once one of Rome's largest towns north of the Alps.
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02
Cathedral of St. Victor
The twin towers of this Gothic basilica mark a site of Christian worship going back to around 400 AD, when a memorial was built over the graves of two men believed to be martyrs. Construction of the current building began in 1263 and was not finished until 1544, making it a three-century project.
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03
Kleve Gate
Of the four double gates that once guarded Xanten's medieval walls, this is the only one still standing, largely because it was repurposed as a prison around 1770 and escaped the demolition that took the others. The outer round towers are still called the Owl Towers, and the building now houses holiday apartments.
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04
LVR Roman Museum
The glass-and-steel shell of this 2008 museum was deliberately sized to match the ancient Basilica Thermarum it protects: 70 by 22 metres, with a height close to 25 metres in Roman times. During gravel extraction nearby, workers pulled Roman flat-bottomed ships and helmets from the ground; several ended up here.
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05
Bislicher Island
This 1,200-hectare floodplain owes its island shape to a canal cut on the orders of Frederick the Great in 1788 to straighten the Rhine. Today tens of thousands of arctic wild geese stop here on migration routes, and the white-tailed eagle breeds on the reserve.
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06
Kriemhild Mill
What looks like a classic Dutch-style windmill was actually a 14th-century watch tower in Xanten's city wall before being converted into an oil mill in 1804. The city council proposed demolishing it in 1843; instead it was restored and still grinds grain today.
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07
Amphitheatre Birten
This earth-and-timber structure from the reign of Claudius and Nero is the only above-ground remnant of the Roman military base Vetera, and it predates the stone amphitheatre of the civilian town by roughly 150 years. It is now used for open-air theatre performances each summer.
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08
7 more places to discover
In the Parroo app
Good to know
14 researched places, from the LVR Archaeological Park and the Cathedral of St. Victor to lesser-known spots like the Kriemhild Mill. Each one has a short summary, a full article, and a ~3-minute audio story.
Yes. Every place has a ~3-minute audio story, written from the perspective of a guide standing next to you and produced with premium narration, not the article read aloud.
German, English, and French. Pick whichever you'd rather read or listen in.
No booking, no signup. It's a self-guided walk you start whenever you like. You do need a connection for now to stream the audio and load articles; offline support is something we're still building.
A one-time €4.99 for the whole city, no subscription and no recurring cost. You buy Xanten once and keep access to all 14 places with text and audio.
Open this city in Parroo
Get the full articles, audio stories, and map for this city in the Parroo app. One payment per geography. Yours to keep.
Updated: 2026-09-25