"City Of Castle" a Düren Travel Page by traveloturc

Düren is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia and it is located between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur, and has a population of over 90,000.The history of Düren probably started more than 2000 years ago. Before Christ's birth, the Celts already lived here. They called their small settlement Durum (meaning castle). After the Celts other Germanic tribes settled this area. They were conquered by the Romans under Julius Caesar.The Romans remained in the area for about 400 years. The name "villa duria" occurred the first time in the Frankish Annals in the year 747.
(Pippin the Short) often visited Düren in the 8th century and held a few important conventions. Pippin was the father of the famous emperor Charlemagne. The Franks made of Durum a royal palace, from which the name Palatine (Pfalz in German) is derived. Charlemagne sojourned a few times there. The castle was built at the place where the Saint Anne Church is located today.

By 1900, Düren was among Germany's richest cities (with 42 millionaires and 93 factories) and had a population of 27,168. By comparison, less than 5000 people had lived in Düren a century earlier.
The city of Düren was located on the main fighting front during the Allied invasion of Germany in World War II. During 1944 and 1945, the protracted and bloody Battle for Hürtgenwald was fought on Düren's district area, and on November 16 1944, Düren was completely destroyed by Allied air bombings. Approximately 22,000 people lived in Düren at that time, and 3,000 of them died during the bombing. Those who survived were evacuated to central Germany.

The emblem of the city of Düren is divided. It shows on the top a red castle, below that, a black eagle and in the lower half a black lion with a red tongue. The black eagle refers to the old history of Düren as a royal city and Reichsstadt. In 1242-46 Düren was bonded to the dukes of Jülich (later, Napoleon was also Duke of Jülich). Their emblem was a lion rampant, with open mouth and a red tongue.