When the Emperor Charlemagne built his representative “Pfalz”, the Palace, before 800, he started to make his dream of Aachen as a “new Rome” come true. The centrepiece of the Palace complex is its church, which was designed as an octagon according to the example of Byzan-tine palace churches. The height of its interior of more than 31 meters is a unique architectural achievement.
Until the High Romanic period nobody managed to exceed this bold construction. Construction of this palatine chapel, with its octagonal basilica and cupola, began c. 790–800 under the Emperor Charlemagne. Designed by architect Odo of Metz, he based the design on the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy which is why the chapel has an Eastern sense to it. The interior of the chapel is in an octagonal shape with striped arches and marble floors and the choir hall which is in gothic style. Inside the chapel are the treasures of the swaddling-clothes of the Infant Jesus, the loin-cloth worn by Christ on the Cross and the cloth on which lay the head of St. John the Baptist after his beheading [1] and the emperor’s shrine.
From the original Palatine Chapel you can find the the bronze doors that were cast around 800 AD and weigh about 4 tons at the west portal. Displayed in the entrance hall are two bronze sculptures: the she-wolf, dating from the 2nd century AD and brought to Aachen in Charlemagne's time; and a large pinecone dating from 1000 AD, which may have decorated a fountain. [2] Looking above into the vault of the octagon, the depiction of Christ is shown surrounded by the 24 ancients of the Apocalypse. The fine columns of the gallery are purely decorative, not bearing any weight of the arches. Charlemagne had 32 of them shipped from the ancient buildings of Rome and Ravenna. Most of them were looted in the French Revolution but 22 have since been returned and restored to their place in the gallery. [2]When the Emperor Charlemagne built his representative “Pfalz”, the Palace, before 800, he started to make his dream of Aachen as a “new Rome” come true. The centrepiece of the Palace complex is its church, which was designed as an octagon according to the example of Byzan-tine palace churches. The height of its interior of more than 31 meters is a unique architectural achievement. Until the High Romanic period nobody managed to exceed this bold construction.
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