Xanten (German pronunciation: [ˈksantn̩] ⓘ, Low Rhenish: Santen) is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Other attractions include the medieval town centre with Xanten Cathedral, many museums and large man-made lakes for various watersport activities.

Other localities (Bezirke) belonging to the town of Xanten include Birten, Lüttingen, Marienbaum, Vynen, Obermörmter, Wardt, Mörmter, Willich, Beek and Ursel.

At the beginning of the 5th century, assaults by Germanic tribes rapidly increased, with the result that Tricensimae was finally given up.

Around 300, Viktor of Xanten is named among the Theban Legion executed for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

According to the legend of the Nibelungs, the mythical Siegfried of Xanten was born ze Santen an dem Rhîne.

In the second half of the 8th century a church was built on the grounds of an old cemetery of the ancient Roman colony and called Sanctos (super Rhenum) (also mentioned as ad Sanctum).

While Xanten, with its rich Viktor Convent, was still being besieged by Norsemen in 863, in 1122 the place already appears as part of a trading network at the Lower Rhine.

Protestantism was placed on an equal footing with the Roman Catholic Church, as confirmed by the Treaty of Xanten on 12 November 1614.

At the same time, the ruins of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana, which had been used as a quarry since the Roman settlement was given up, aroused the interest of archaeologists.

In September 1927, the Catholic Church municipality celebrated its 1,600th anniversary; in 1937 Pope Pius XI granted the right for the cathedral of St. Viktor to be called a basilica minor.

Anti-Semitic agitation connected the Jewish butcher and former shoḥeṭ Adolf Buschoff with this crime, and the local priest, Father Bresser, lent support to this rumour by publishing articles on ritual murder in the paper Bote für Stadt und Land, which he edited.

This action aroused the anti-Semites to still stronger agitation, which culminated in a heated debate in the Prussian Diet.

The real murderer was never discovered, and the possibility that the death of the child was due to an accident was not entirely disproved.

[citation needed] In 1933, mayor Heinrich Wagner was locked up in a tower called the Meerturm, accused of alleged nepotism in the loan business.

His successor was Friedrich Karl Schöneborn, while the post of deputy mayor was given to Heinrich Prang junior.

The remaining opposition consisted of communists and liberal politicians lacking a clear political mandate.

This included the destruction of the local prayer room and the devastation of several dwellings of Jewish inhabitants on Reichskristallnacht of 9 November 1938.

During the Second World War an ammunition factory of the Luftwaffe was established in a small forest close to the town, called Die Hees.

Incidents in the area of the factory occurred in November 1942 and October 1944, causing the explosion of a portion of the stored ammunition, which cost several workers' lives.

The Canadian military lost, according to their own data, 400 soldiers in the fight against the defending Fallschirmjäger (paratroops) under the command of Eugen Meindl.

Artillery projectiles fired by German soldiers from the right bank of the Rhine further devastated Xanten at this time.

The reconstruction of the town and the cathedral was influenced particularly by the archaeologist and monument conservationist Walter Bader, and lasted until 1966.