Aachen Cathedral

About the Cathedral

Aachen Cathedral (Aachener Dom) was the first German UNESCO World Heritage Site, originally built by Emperor Charlemagne around 800 AD as his imperial chapel. The cathedral's distinctive octagonal Palatine Chapel blends Carolingian, Byzantine, and Gothic styles, and served as the coronation church for over 30 German kings across six centuries. It remains a symbol of European unity and the legacy of the Carolingian Empire.

Construction of the Palatine Chapel began around 796 under Charlemagne, who made Aachen the center of his court and was buried there in 814. Thirty German kings were crowned in the church between 936, starting with Otto I, and 1531, and the building was enlarged over centuries with a Gothic choir hall consecrated in 1414. In 1978 it became one of the first twelve sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the first in Germany. Its octagonal core and the marble throne on the upper gallery remain the city's best-known landmark, drawing pilgrims to the Aachen shrine pilgrimage held every seven years, and the cathedral treasury holds relics whose traditional origins are not historically verifiable.