Kaiserburg Part Three, Inside

Some pictures from inside the Kaiserburg, which houses a museum as well as just allowing you to tour the interior spaces. Included are views of the chapel, including paintings and sculptures of emperors and their empresses, including (I'm pretty sure) Saints Kunigunde and Heinrich (we'll be seeing more of them later in the trip, I hope), and Karl der Große, who most people know as Charlemagne. Not that he was ever in the Kaiserburg, but the importance of establishing legitimacy for the HRE led back to him for centuries, until the Hapsburgs, and don't get me started on THEM.

Speaking of the Hapsburgs, the ceiling tiles (right before the illuminated manuscript) are reproductions of the tiles put in for a visit by Charles V (Hapsburg/Spain/sacker of Rome/opponent of Martin Luther/nephew of Katherine of Aragon).

Then there's the orb. Looks imperial, doesn't it? You might ask, and you would be right to, well where is that beautiful crown of the Holy Roman Emperor, dating back to Karl der Große? That famous crown, with the big cross on top? You know, the one that maybe should be in Nuremberg, as every HRE for the longest time was compelled to come her and meet his electors? Well, maybe, you'd say, maybe Julie, it's in Aachen, you know where they were actually crowned. Well, you'd be wrong.

It's in Vienna. Because when the Hapsburgs locked up the title, they took it with them. They kept it, long after there ceased to be a Holy Roman Empire. Hitler brought it back after the Anschluss, but the US government gave it back to the Austrians after the war. This is (as you can tell) a sore spot with me. To paraphrase Indiana Jones, "It belongs in a museum..." Yeah, in Germany, like the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.

Oh, and Herr Hai chose the picture with the spears. He was insistent I put that in, along with the picture of the tower from the window.

I could have easily spent an entire day in this place, and look forward to going back.Read more