page_title: Tongeren
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Tongeren / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le Perron de Tongres.
context_page_description: Tongeren is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital within the country's borders. As a Roman city, it was inhabited by the Tungri, and known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, it was the administrative centre of the Civitas Tungrorum district. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.
context_section_description: Already in the fourth century, just as the Salian Franks were settling to the north, the city became the center of a Christian diocese under the influence of Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongeren, who died in 384 AD. In the meantime, the Franks to the north and east were pagan and so many areas had to be reconverted over the course of the following centuries, with several missionaries becoming martyrs. The seat of the Tungrian bishopric however eventually moved to nearby Maastricht, after Saint Servatius was buried near the Roman towns  there. Much later, Liège became the seat of what would become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège, the church equivalent to the Civitas Tungrorum. This was the resting place of Saint Lambert of Maastricht, one of the last missionaries in the area, who died about 700 AD. Aduatuca Tungrorum may have been destroyed by the Huns in 451 AD. Tongeren therefore lost some importance during this period.
  Waves of Germanic settlers and invaders changed the area significantly. The Merovingian period between the fifth and the eighth century is not well documented. The building of a new church and the foundation of a chapter of canons took place in Carolingian times, at the very place where the old bishops’ houses stood, and where the basilica still stands today.  The construction of the current basilica started at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the prevalent Gothic style of that period.  Other buildings were added to the religious core of the city, including new commercial areas, hospitals and artisans quarters.  The thirteenth century also saw the building of the medieval defensive wall, several new churches and cloisters, and the beguinage. The city became one of the “bonnes villes” ("good cities") of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
caption: Het Plein (The Place) with a "Perroen", the historic symbol of being one of the "bonnes villes".
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