Chapelle palatine d'Aix-la-Chapelle, tombeau de Charlemagne

Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen)

Charlemagne, who loved to swim in the hot springs of Aachen, fixed his palace there around 794 and had built, under the direction of Odo of Metz, a chapel "of admirable workmanship", says Einhard, for which he had the columns and marbles brought from Rome and Ravenna. The plan is that of San Vitale in Ravenna: an octagon fourteen and a half metres in diameter beneath a dome, wrapped in a sixteen-sided ambulatory, with a gallery in which stands the emperor's marble throne. The consecration is placed in 805, by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne died there on 28 January 814 and was buried there the same day. Thirty-one kings of Germany would be crowned there, from 936 to 1531. On 29 December 1165, Frederick Barbarossa had the emperor proclaimed a saint there by the antipope Paschal III, opened the tomb and raised the bones, which Frederick II enclosed in 1215 in the shrine of gold and silver still set in the Gothic choir, a cage of glass built from 1355 to 1414 on the model of the Sainte-Chapelle. The bronze chandelier offered by Barbarossa still hangs beneath the dome. The ancient columns, carried off to Paris in 1794, partly came back in 1815. The pilgrimage of the great relics has drawn crowds every seven years since 1349. The cathedral was, in 1978, one of the first twelve properties inscribed by Unesco on the World Heritage list.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale d'Aix-la-Chapelle ↗

Getting there : Aachen central station a quarter of an hour's walk away; car parks in the old town. Entry to the cathedral is free during opening hours, outside services, in the afternoon above all (the morning is reserved for worship). The octagon can be walked round on your own; the Gothic choir, the shrine and Charlemagne's throne, in the gallery, can be seen only on a guided tour, sold at the Dominformation, on the square, which also offers tours in French and English according to the season (to be checked). The treasury (Domschatzkammer), with the reliquary bust of Charlemagne and the cross of Lothair, is a separate museum, paid, open every day. Allow two hours for the whole.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound