Places
Aachen Cathedral: the domed chapel, the tall Gothic choir and the western tower.
The cathedral, with Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel at its core. Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Cathedral

Aachen Cathedral

Charlemagne’s palace chapel, where he was buried in 814 and where thirty-one German kings were crowned.

Location
Aachen, Germany
Building
Cathedral (diocesan see since 1930); built as Charlemagne’s palace chapel
Tradition
Roman Catholic
Religious use
In use as the cathedral of the Diocese of Aachen.
Official website
Aachen Cathedral

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

One of the oldest cathedral buildings in Europe, Aachen was among the first twelve sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage list (1978), for its artistry and its place in the history of the Holy Roman Empire.

In the Atlas

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Documented

    Charlemagne began the Palatine Chapel around 796; Pope Leo III consecrated it in 805. Charlemagne was buried there in 814.

  • Documented

    From 936 to 1531 it saw the coronation of thirty-one German kings. Later a collegiate church, it was a cathedral briefly from 1803 to 1825 and again from 1930, when the Diocese of Aachen was revived.

Reference draft. The statements were checked against the general reference sources below, read in a build session (Wikipedia at a recorded revision, and Wikidata). They have not yet been checked against scholarly or primary sources.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Aachen Cathedral — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1378916526, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/aachen-cathedral/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q5908 (Aachen Cathedral) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.