Historic Cities · Germany
Aachen through the ages
Aachen is the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. It is the western-most major city in Germany, lying approximately 61 km (38 mi) west of Cologne and Bonn, directly bordering Belgium in the southwest, and the Netherlands in the northwest.
Aachen in AD 800
Charlemagne's Aachen
This is the imperial palace-city in the first decades of Charlemagne's permanent residence, when the new Palatine Chapel and the great Council Hall shape a compact royal quarter. The walk follows the palace square, the steaming springs and the timber workshops that cluster around the emperor's court, ending at a lofty tower that looks over the whole complex.
Aix-la-Chapelle in 800 is a compact, low-rise town gathered around red stone monuments and timber halls. The Palatine Chapel's octagon and its leaded cupola pierce the skyline, surrounded by whitewashed administrative buildings, covered wooden galleries and brick-faced basilicas. Narrow packed-earth streets run between markets, baths steaming into stone basins, and rows of workshops; colours are ochres, pale plaster, exposed oak and the dark gleam of polished bronze and marble spolia.
The walk — 20 streets, squares and views
Decumanus Approach → Porta Orientalis (East Gate) → Bridge over the Wurm → Palace Market → Granus Tower (base) → Aula Regia Forecourt → Gallery's Monumental Porch → Palace Square → Palatine Chapel (exterior) → Westbau and Atrium → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Covered Market Hall · Granus Tower Base Chamber · Great Council Hall · Stone Gallery Passage · Octagon beneath the Dome · Hot Spring Baths · Imperial Bathing Hall · Palace Scriptorium · Goldsmiths' Main Workshop · Royal Mint Workshop · Great Timber Hall Chamber · West Atrium with Exedrae
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Palace of Aachen.
Aachen in 1500
Coronation Aachen
Aachen in 1500 is the still-recognised coronation city of the German kings, where the little Carolingian octagon sits grafted to a new Gothic, glass-walled choir and the town hall rises over the old palace foundations. The walk moves from the outer gate and springs into narrow market streets, past cloth-weavers and needle-makers, to the cathedral precinct crowded with pilgrims for the seven-yearly relic showing.
Aachen’s skyline is dominated by the squat octagonal Palatine Chapel and the tall, luminous Gothic choir whose great expanses of glass make the east end read like a reliquary. The octagon’s quarry-stone and ancient columns show traces of red plaster; around them a dense town of timber-framed houses with steep tiled roofs, narrow streets and fortified stone gates press close to medieval walls and the winding Wurm river.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Lousberg Slope → Ponttor Gate → Pontstraße → Wurm Bridge → Aquae Granni Springs → Bathhouse Courtyard → Tuchgasse → Nadelgasse → Markt (Great Market) → Fischmarkt → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Ponttor Gate Guard Chamber · Spring Well Niche · Bathhouse Steam Chamber · Weavers' Loom Workshop · Needle-makers' Forge Shop · Great Market Hall Interior · Town Hall Coronation Chamber · Domed Octagon Interior · Imperial Throne Antechamber · Gothic Choir Heiltum Hall · Aula Regia Foundation Vault · Marschiertor Toll Room
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Aachen Cathedral.
.jpg?width=640)
