18 May: The shrine of Mighty Charles

This morning we headed west to Aachen. Cologne was humid, with the occasional thunderstorm. We dressed for spring weather, then travelled through flat misty countryside to arrive at decidedly chill Aachen.

Frustrating, as we had been carting around our winter clothes since Vancouver, and today had left them behind. Neil got a lot of mileage out of his nobility in lending me his raincoat!

After a reviving expresso we found the Cathedral Treasury. The mighty Charlemagne built the cathedral, started in 796, as his Royal Chapel, in the Byzantine style, a high octagon with marble pillars, sixteen vaults, and exquisite gold interlaced mosaics. A gothic hall for pilgrims and a stunning chapel with soaring walls of stained glass were added.

It is a unique treasure which has survived Viking raids, Napoleonic plunder and more recently Allied bombing attacks and artillery fire. Some parts of the complex were destroyed beyond repair, but 30 years of restoration, costing €40 million euros, have rescued this unique treasure, one of the first buildings to be declared a world heritage site.

We have seen a number of cathedral treasuries, but this one blows your socks off. This stuff is authentic (Charlemagne’s hunting knife, well worn, with sheath, and his hunting horn), of the highest medieval workmanship (how did they do this stuff back then?) and unique in the light it throws on earlier ages. These are not just superb decorative objects.. They are reliquaries - the golden hand with a bone from the emperor’s arm; the famous bust (in all the history books) with part of his skull inside, the intricate gold construction that holds part of his thighbone.

Pilgrims travelled from all over Europe to be close to these objects of power and blessing. We may scoff, but the adulation poured out on modern pop stars comes from the same impulse: to share a power greater than our own. Plus what we do in plastic, they did in gold of the highest workmanship.

This man laid the foundations of European civilization, three hundred years after Rome had collapsed. He deserves our respect..Läs mer