Aachen - Cathedral

The "Imperial Cathedral" was known as the "Royal Church of St. Mary at Aachen" during the
Middle Ages. From 936 to 1531, the Aachen chapel was the church of coronation for 30 German
kings and 12 queens.

In 792 Charlemagne ("Charles the Great", "Karl der Grosse") began the construction of a palace
here and part of the whole structure was this "Palatine Chapel".
The center (and the oldest part) of the cathedral of today is this carolingian octogon, planned are
realized by Odo of Metz, one of the first known architects, north of the Alps. Odo had seen obviously seen Byzantine churches. For sure he knew details of the Basilica of San Vitale of Ravenna, as San Vitale, that seems to be a model of this chapel.

Pope Leo III consecrated the chappel in 805.

Having entered the cathedral - and looking into the ground floor of the octogon through the arcades around.

The cathedral has a very nice website - in German:
www.aachendom.de/

Wikipedia has one
in English: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen_Cathedral
and French: fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_d%27Aix-la-Chapelle