Palace of Aachen

The Palatinate in Aachen was the most important early and high medieval seat of power of the Frankish and then East Frankish - German realm. Their meaning is owed ​​mainly to the fact that she was the favorite palace of the great Frankish king Charlemagne. In the Palatine Chapel of the plant, now the Aachen Cathedral, were over a period of 600 years, more than 30 Roman- German kings in the direct successor of Charles looked the Great, crowned.

Even by their sheer size unusually, she was in the far east of the nuclear landscape of the early Carolingians, whose center is at Liege and Herstal, built.

History

Even in the time of the Frankish king Pippin the Younger can be in the area of ​​the later buildings demonstrate Palatinate. These were limited but probably more likely to bodies like the of a larger contemporary manor. Only Charlemagne left the Palatinate in the late 8th century to a large facility with King's Hall (Aula Regia ), Palatine Chapel, Tower House, Garrison and courtrooms expand. Karl pursued so that the goal of a new Rome north to build the Alps as a fixed seat of government of his Frankish Empire, which saw themselves as the successors of the Roman Empire. In the winter of 804/ 05, the palace chapel was built by Odo of Metz, by Pope Leo III. consecrated. At this time the most important Carolingian plants were already completed.

In the year 936 the Great was crowned at Aachen Palatine Otto, who thus established the basis for the tradition of the coronation of the Holy Roman kings in Aachen.

In the 14th century, was built at the initiative of the mayor Gerhard Chorus and with donations of Richard of Cornwall instead of the King's Hall, the new Town Hall in Aachen, since the old and housed in the grass Rathaus was not sufficiently representative. At the same time the Carolingian Palatine Chapel, a Gothic choir was added, numerous chapels flanking the Palatine Chapel from now on. After fires in 1624 and 1656 the roofs of the palace chapel in 1664 were renewed.

With the end of coronations in Aachen in 1531 the Palatinate Aachen loses its significance as a traditional place of coronation of German kings. Since 1802, however, the Marienkirche, built as a palace chapel forms the central structure of today's Aachen Cathedral, the cathedral for the newly created Diocese of Aachen.

Conception

The Imperial Palace of Aachen was greater than all the goods that had ever possessed a Frankish king before Charles the Great. From winter 794/795 of the nearly fifty-year ruler himself was regularly settled in Aachen.

In the King's Hall, built by Roman models of the Frankish king pursued his policy. In the attached building components such as the obtained Granusturm Karl lived presumably with his family. A two-storey connecting building led to St. Mary's Church, the Palatine Chapel in the south of the plant. The connecting building took probably in the upper part of the court school, while the lower section was probably reserved for the garrison.

The Palatine Chapel formed the core of the palace complex and was magnificent than any of the stone buildings that existed north of the Alps. From Rome and Ravenna was Karl marble columns and bring along to their equipment. A wooden gear allowed the rulers to get their feet wet by his living quarters in the church.

After the coronation in Rome on Christmas Day 800 Charlemagne incorporated the consummate Palatinate and made ​​it his permanent residence until his death in 814