Aachen Cathedral — Palatine Chapel
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Transcript
Charlemagne built the Palatine Chapel as the sacred centre of his palace complex around 800. Its octagonal core borrowed imperial and Christian architectural ideas from the Mediterranean world and translated them north of the Alps.
The building projected a ruler who saw his court as heir to Roman Christian authority. Aachen was not a fixed national capital, but this chapel made it one of the most important symbolic places in the Carolingian realm.