Polychrome marbles and Byzantine-style mosaics in the octagonal former Palatine Chapel of Frankish Emperor Charlemagne or Charles the Great (747-814 AD) at Aachen, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany, echo its ancient inspiration: the Byzantine Basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna, Italy. The chapel is now part of the city’s cathedral, the Aachener Dom.
Aachen, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany: fine polychrome marbles and Byzantine-style golden mosaics are echoes of the ancient inspiration behind the design of the former Palatine Chapel consecrated in 805 AD in the imperial palace of Frankish Emperor Charlemagne or Charles the Great (747-814 AD). Armenian architect Eudes or Odo of Metz is believed to have modelled the octagonal chapel on the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, world-famous for its beautiful Byzantine and Ostrogoth mosaics and inlaid marbles. Odo also re-used ancient columns and marble from Rome, Ravenna, Trier and Cologne. Many of the original marble panels and mosaics within the former Royal Chapel of St Mary, now part of the city’s Aachener Dom cathedral, were replaced in the late-1800s and early-1900s Prussian era, although the neo-Byzantine style of the new mosaics was in keeping with the original designs. The lofty stone structure was once the largest church north of the Alps. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, it served as a Kaiserdom or coronation church in which 30 German kings - most of them also Holy Roman Emperors - and 12 queens were crowned. Although the Aachener Dom has only been a cathedral with its own diocese since the 1930s, it is one of Germany’s oldest churches and is among the country’s earliest buildings still in continuous use. Despite Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque additions and widespread World War II damage to Aachen, the octagon survives in its original form. Inside, it contains the Karlsthron, Charlemagne’s marble imperial throne, as well as a gilded Romanesque shrine containing his remains and original bronze doors and railings cast in a local foundry. Charlemagne’s successor, Otto III, is also buried here.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Aachen, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1800s, 1900s, 19th, 20th, 700s, 747-814, 796-805, 800s, 805, 8th, 9th, aachen, aachener, ad, aix-la-chapelle, architect, black, built, burial-place, byzantine-style, carolingian, cathedral, cathedrals, catholic, century, chapel, charlemagne, charles, consecrated, coronation, , dom, dynasty, early, emperors, empire, eudes, frankish, franks, german, germany, great, grey, holy, inlaid, kaiserdom, kerr, king, kingdom, kings, late, marble, metz, mosaic, mosaics, neo-byzantine, north, octagon, octagonal, odo, palace, palatine, patterned, pfalzkapelle, polychrome, prussian, red, rhine-westphalia, roman, terence, tesserae, veined, white, yellow
