Aachen cathedral and its treasures
Mar. 20th, 2018 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWhile we were in Aachen last Easter, I wrote about the cathedral and treasury there, but I posted only the bare minimum of pictures. So this is the same again, but illustrated. I'll start with just one exterior view:
It isn't the greatest photograph, but it does show that very distinctive silhouette (also available as a ginger biscuit). On the left is the Gothic choir, then the original Carolingian octagon, the Palace Chapel. The spire is nineteenth century, I think, on an older base. The real fun, though, is inside.
Inside the church that Charlemagne established, templum quod Carolus Princeps condidit:
Like all the mosaics, this is nineteenth century, and recently renovated: the original mosaic decoration is long gone. The chandelier, on the other hand, is of gold-plated copper, and was presented to the church around 1180 by Frederick Barbarossa. The columns of the upper gallery are even older, reused Roman work. And comparatively modern they may be, but the mosaics are wonderful:
...in every detail:
Just one more, because the decoration of the arch sets off the stained glass so well:
This, too, is modern (post-war) as you can probably tell from the design. If it's amazing now, how must this box of glass have impressed in the 14th/15th century, when it was new? It's just dazzling:
- so I don't apologise for the unruly light and reflections in this picture of Charlemagne's shrine: what it loses in objective realism it gains in 'but this is how it felt to look at it!'
This is probably not the Throne of Charlemagne, though it might be. It dates back to somewhere between the construction of the cathedral in 800 and the first time it was used in a coronation in 936 (I continue to boggle at these three-figure dates). Then again, the marble slabs of which it is constructed are older (more Roman stone-cutting) and one of the sides of the chair must previously have been horizontal, because someone has scratched a game of Nine Men's Morris into it.
I didn't take many pictures in the Treasury. There were some wonderful things there - oh, altogether too many unlikely relics, as I said last time, and some paintings which didn't interest me much: but there were some beautiful medieval golden shrines, in high glass cases, brilliantly lit. In the end I gave up on trying to see everything, and just sat and admired the play of shadows and reflections and the sheen of the gold itself. But the nearest I came to a decent photograph is this magnificent bust reliquary:
It's Charlemagne, of course. Not a portrait (it was donated around 1349 by Charles IV) but it does contain a piece of his skull. And I like the way the lights sparkle around him like stars.
After which sensory overload I was ready to go and lie down in a darkened room.
It isn't the greatest photograph, but it does show that very distinctive silhouette (also available as a ginger biscuit). On the left is the Gothic choir, then the original Carolingian octagon, the Palace Chapel. The spire is nineteenth century, I think, on an older base. The real fun, though, is inside.
Inside the church that Charlemagne established, templum quod Carolus Princeps condidit:
Like all the mosaics, this is nineteenth century, and recently renovated: the original mosaic decoration is long gone. The chandelier, on the other hand, is of gold-plated copper, and was presented to the church around 1180 by Frederick Barbarossa. The columns of the upper gallery are even older, reused Roman work. And comparatively modern they may be, but the mosaics are wonderful:
...in every detail:
Just one more, because the decoration of the arch sets off the stained glass so well:
This, too, is modern (post-war) as you can probably tell from the design. If it's amazing now, how must this box of glass have impressed in the 14th/15th century, when it was new? It's just dazzling:
- so I don't apologise for the unruly light and reflections in this picture of Charlemagne's shrine: what it loses in objective realism it gains in 'but this is how it felt to look at it!'
This is probably not the Throne of Charlemagne, though it might be. It dates back to somewhere between the construction of the cathedral in 800 and the first time it was used in a coronation in 936 (I continue to boggle at these three-figure dates). Then again, the marble slabs of which it is constructed are older (more Roman stone-cutting) and one of the sides of the chair must previously have been horizontal, because someone has scratched a game of Nine Men's Morris into it.
I didn't take many pictures in the Treasury. There were some wonderful things there - oh, altogether too many unlikely relics, as I said last time, and some paintings which didn't interest me much: but there were some beautiful medieval golden shrines, in high glass cases, brilliantly lit. In the end I gave up on trying to see everything, and just sat and admired the play of shadows and reflections and the sheen of the gold itself. But the nearest I came to a decent photograph is this magnificent bust reliquary:
It's Charlemagne, of course. Not a portrait (it was donated around 1349 by Charles IV) but it does contain a piece of his skull. And I like the way the lights sparkle around him like stars.
After which sensory overload I was ready to go and lie down in a darkened room.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-22 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 09:02 pm (UTC)