Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor and king of the Franks, died in 814 year. A few years before his death, Charles ordered his friend, adviser and biographer, Angarda build a magnificent Palace with a chapel. Einhard chosen for the implementation of the plan of the architect Odo of Metz, and in 805 year the chapel was consecrated. That is where Charlemagne was buried, and there is a reliquary with the relics to this day.

Simple in plan, the chapel is a high octagonal hall with a lower shestnadtsatigalonnom. Arches lined with alternating bands of colored stone. The walls of the chapel are decorated with ancient mosaics and ended with a simple conical roof. In the XVII century it was replaced by a high dome with a lantern. From the ceiling hangs a wrought-iron chandelier in the form of a crown, Podnebesnaya donated to the Cathedral by Frederick Barbarossa. And in the Museum-Treasury of the Cathedral is kept medieval cast statue of the virgin Mary of extraordinary beauty.

The Palace chapel has received the status of Cathedral in the IX century. She went down in history as the place of coronation of the German kings. In the chapel there is a large throne, according to legend, belonged to Charlemagne. The Emperor Henry II gave in the eleventh century, the Cathedral is a bronze chair, inlaid with ivory.

Aachen Cathedral has the traditional cruciform Romanesque architecture or Basilica plan. The chapel is its kernel. In the XIV century to the East of the chapel choir was built in the Gothic style altar. Thirteen huge 25-foot Windows of the choir, separated by slender buttresses, occupy a large part of the wall and illuminate the Cathedral. They contrast with the small round Windows of the chapel. Subsequently, there were other chapels, of various shapes and sizes. Visible steep slopes of the roof of the choir, built in the XIV century, and the dome of the seventeenth century, stands on top of the chapel. Pyramidal spire, is significantly different in style, was built later.