The interior of the Palace Chapel's dome. Aachen Cathedral.
As you’ve probably gathered from the other pages, I was pretty enamored with Cologne Cathedral. So, why did I take time away from touring that Cathedral to make a half-day side trip to see Aachen’s cathedral? There was one reason why I made that trip: history. Aachen’s cathedral is even older than Cologne’s (Aachen’s was completed in 805…Cologne’s wasn’t started for another 400 years). The other reason was that the famous king Charlemagne is buried at Aachen Cathedral. With that kind of historical pedigree, a side trip to Aachen seemed to be a natural addition to our trip.
It didn’t take long to find that sense of history that I imagined would be there. It hit us shortly after walking in the front door. Upon entering, we found a large, octagonal room with a beautifully decorated dome. This room was the oldest section of the cathedral (the original chapel for Charlemagne’s palace), and it looked the part. With several sets of rounded arches and mosaics ornamenting the walls and dome, the architecture was straight out of a Romanesque, Byzantine textbook. The relatively small size of the section (when compared to other cathedrals) only heightened the ancient feeling.
Aachen Cathedral has been recognized as an important shrine ever since Charlemagne was buried there in 814. Eventually, so many pilgrims visited the church that an addition was needed. By the time the addition was build (around 1400), the Romanesque style was out of fashion and the Gothic style was ascendant. So, the new addition was built in the Gothic style to the east of the original section. Taken by itself, it is a breathtaking structure. The tracery and stained glass rival the best Gothic chapels that I’ve visited. However, the combination of this Gothic addition and the Romanesque original didn’t work for me. There wasn’t the harmonious flow of the two styles that I’d seen at Maulbronn. Instead, it appeared to be two separate buildings connected together only by the desire to create more space.
While the architecture of the building’s two sections didn’t flow as nicely as I would’ve liked, it was easy for me to see the importance that pilgrims placed on Aachen Cathedral simply based on the large number of relics and gifts that populate the interior. The first such item to catch my attention was a beautiful chandelier hanging from the original chapel’s dome that was a gift from Frederick Barbarosa in 1170. In the Gothic section, items that caught my eye were the stunning ambo (a gift from Henry II around 1020), the reliquary of Mary (which contains several pieces of clothing reportedly from Mary and Jesus), the statue of the Madonna and Child (carved in 1488), and the shrine of Charlemagne (where the king’s bones now reside).
We also spent a bit of time exploring some of the chapels that populate the cathedral’s sides, which were magnificent by themselves. The only disappointment in our visit was our inability to get close to Charlemagne’s marble throne. We could partially see it from the floor of the Cathedral’s original section. However, a close up visit is only available during a guided tour (which is conducted exclusively in German). So, we made do with our partial glimpses of the throne.
I wasn’t looking for faith at my visit to Aachen. Instead, I was hoping to absorb history. Despite my displeasure with the contrasting architectural styles, I found that sense of history during my visit. For that reason alone, I’d recommend a visit to Aachen Cathedral to anyone who is in Aachen’s vicinity.
Below:
1) Light across the Romanesque arches
2) The main altar and the Shrine of Mary (yes, that is gold)
3) The Palace Chapel and the Barbarosa Chandelier.
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