Aachen is located at the northern foothills of the High Fens and the Eifel Mountains. 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 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 Frankized 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 constituted as the main royal residence of the Frankish Empire ruled by Charlemagne.
Because of that the city is sometimes called "cradle of Europe". It subsequently was part of the Holy Roman Empire and was granted city rights in by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa , becoming an imperial city. It served as the coronation site where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans from to , until Frankfurt am Main became the preferred place of coronation.
Its university hospital Uniklinikum Aachen is Europe's largest single-building hospital. Aachen's industries include science, engineering and information technology. In , Aachen was ranked eighth among cities in Germany for innovation. The regional dialect spoken in the city is a Central Franconian , Ripuarian variant with strong Limburgish influences from the dialects in the neighbouring Netherlands. As a Rhenish city, Aachen is one of the main centres of carnival celebrations in Germany , along with Cologne and Mainz.
The culinary specialty for which the city is best known is Aachener Printen , a type of gingerbread. The name Aachen is a modern descendant, like southern German Ach e , German: Aach , meaning "river" or "stream", from Old High German ahha , meaning "water" or "stream", which directly translates and etymologically corresponds to Latin Aquae , referring to the springs.
