Description of the attraction
Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks, died in 814. A few years before his death, Karl ordered his friend, adviser and biographer Eingard to build a luxurious palace with a chapel. Eingard chose the architect Odo from Metz to implement this plan, and already in 805 the chapel was consecrated. It was there that Charlemagne was buried, and there is a reliquary with his relics to this day.
The chapel, simple in plan, is a high octahedral hall with a lower hexahedron. The arches are lined with alternating stripes of multi-colored stone. The walls of the chapel were decorated with ancient mosaics and ended with a simple conical roof. In the 17th century, it was replaced by a high dome with a lantern. A wrought iron chandelier in the shape of a crown, donated to the cathedral by Frederick Barbarossa, hangs from the ceiling. And in the treasury museum at the cathedral there is a medieval cast statue of the Virgin Mary of extraordinary beauty.
The palace chapel received the status of a cathedral in the 9th century. It went down in history as the place where the German kings were crowned. The chapel has preserved a large throne, according to legend, which belonged to Charlemagne himself. Emperor Henry II donated a bronze pulpit inlaid with ivory to the cathedral in the 11th century.
Aachen Cathedral does not have a cruciform or basilica plan, which is traditional for Romanesque architecture. The chapel is its core. In the 14th century, a Gothic choir with an altar was built to the east of the chapel. Thirteen huge 25-meter high choir windows, separated by slender buttresses, occupy most of the wall and illuminate the cathedral. They contrast with the small round windows of the chapel. Subsequently, other chapels appeared, varied in style and size. The steep slopes of the roof of the choir, built in the 14th century, and the dome of the 17th century, crowning the chapel, are clearly visible. The pyramidal spire, which is significantly different in style, was built later.
