Aachen Cathedral, frequently referred to as the "Imperial Cathedral" (in German: Kaiserdom), is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe. For 595 years, from 936 to 1531, the Aachen chapel was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens.
Aachen Cathedral houses a collection of medieval art objects from the late Classical, Carolingian, Ottonian and Staufian periods which are exceptional in their artistic and religious meaning, including the Shrine of Charles, the Aachen Throne and the Barbarossa Chandelier .
The Aachen cathedral treasury includes such unique exhibits like the Cross of Lothair, the Bust of Charlemagne and the Persephone sarcophagus. The Cathedral Treasury in Aachen is regarded as one of the most important ecclesiastical treasuries in northern Europe. Pilgrims are able to see some of the relics every seven years when they are displayed.
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Justification for Inscription as World heritage Site
Criterion (i): With its columns of Greek and Italian marble, its bronze doors, the largest mosaic of its dome (now destroyed), the Palatine Chapel of Aachen, from its inception, has been perceived as an exceptional artistic creation. It was the first vaulted structure north of the Alps since Antiquity.
Criterion (ii): Bearing the strong imprint of both Classic and Byzantine tradition this chapel remained, during the Carolingian Renaissance and even at the beginning of the medieval period, one of the prototypes of religious architecture which inspired copies or imitations.
Criterion (iv): The Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne is an excellent and distinctive example of the family of aulian chapels based on a central plan with tribunes.
Criterion (vi): The construction of the Chapel of the Emperor at Aachen symbolised the unification of the West and its spiritual and political revival under the aegis of Charlemagne. In 814, Charlemagne was buried here, and throughout the Middle Ages until 1531, the German emperors continued to be crowned at Aachen. The collection of the treasury of the Cathedral is of inestimable archaeological, aesthetic and historic interest.
Source: UNESCO (
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