July 4, 2015
AACHEN DOM and Treasury
It was a thrill to visit this chapel where Charlemagne was crowned emperor and began the first steps in Western Europe toward civilization since the Roman Empire.
The famous Charlemagne bust (c. 1349 AD), can be viewed in the treasury which houses one of Europe’s greatest collections of ecclesiastical treasures.
Aachen Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe. For 595 years, from 936 to 1531, the Aachen chapel was the church of coronation for 30 German kings.
With its amazing history and architecture, no words or pictures can do justice to the experience of being there, sitting quietly beneath that majestic dome.
This is our guide, Dustin, very knowledgable, who is a student from UK studying German and Catholic History in Aachen.
His back is to the throne made of marble slabs when 30 German kings were crowned.
Arguably the founder of the Frankish Empire in Western Europe, Charlemagne was the elder son of Pepin the Short.
On the death of Pepin, Charlemagne became King. He was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign. He conquered Saxony in the 8th century, a goal that had been the unattainable dream of Augustus. He proceeded to force Christianity on the conquered.
In 800, at Mass on Christmas day in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor.
Charlemagne's reign is often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art and architecture. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars.
The Charlemagne and Maria shrines (13th century) hold most of his bones and other relics.
The legendary throne of Charlemagne on which over 30 kings sat during their coronations is in Aachen cathedral.
The cathedral’s gothic choir, a copy of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris has 80-foot-high windows, a major accomplishment of its era (1414 AD).
This arm reliquary has a bone of Charlemagne's in it.
The Lothar Cross takes its name from the large engraved greenish rock crystal seal near its base bearing the portrait and name of the Carolingian ruler Lothair II, King of Lotharingia (835–869), and a nephew of Charles the Bald.
This reliquary in the Treasury also has other relics inside of it like hair and a piece of wood.
Aachen’s most famous landmark is a UNESCO world heritage site, whose main part was constructed between around 780 and 800 AD under Charlemagne.
There are no surviving portraits or pictures of Charlemagne. This is one artist's interpretation.
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