The story of this place
Charlemagne made Aachen the capital of his revived Western empire, and around 800 built here an octagonal Palatine Chapel of astonishing ambition, its marble columns hauled from Rome and Ravenna. He was buried in it in 814, and his simple stone throne stood on its upper gallery. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, thirty German kings were crowned in this chapel, seating themselves on Charlemagne's throne to claim his legacy. In 1978 Aachen Cathedral became the first German site on UNESCO's World Heritage list. Its treasury holds a golden bust reliquary said to contain the emperor's skull, and pilgrims still come to venerate relics displayed only once every seven years.