Aachen Cathedral

Aachen Cathedral is a large church in western Germany, where kings in Germany used to be crowned. This cathedral was the first German monument to become a member of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 1978 and is thus once again under special protection.

Every seven years there is a great pilgrimage, where believers from all over the world can visit the Shrines of Aachen, the so-called Relics like a special one, the nappy of Jesus. In the cathedral there is also the tomb of Charlemagne, his crowning place and throne. The cathedral treasury has got one of the most important ecclesiastical cultural treasures of the world.

Aachen Cathedral as we know it today was built step by step over a long period of time, as it was also rebuilt or extended 

Frontview of the Aachen Cathedral

Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, Wikipedia

more often.
The church was built over the remains of a Roman spa, made of many different building materials from the entire Frankish Empire, as well as refined with Roman columns and other parts. 


Charlemagne has led a revolutionary policy. He introduced a forerunner of the Basic Law, a unified script, and the most important thing for mankind, he let himself become crowned as a Roman Emperor.

Sounding stupid? People believed that there will be only four big empires and the Roman empire was the fourth and last. At that time, people believed that the world will go down after the fourth empire has ended and that just did not happen because of Charlesmagne’s coronation as Roman Emperor. For this reason, his successors until 1531 were crowned and buryied in Aachen cathedral.

Finn