LIFESTYLE . ARTS
Aachen Cathedral
45' (GER, ENG subs)
Preparatory work on the most spectacular building of its time began more than 1,200 years ago. The contractor: Charles the Great, the first Emperor in the West after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
He, the restless spirit, the wandering emperor who had moved from palace to palace for decades, wanted to build a seat of government. Consequently, he ordered the best master builders and craftsmen from the most distant corners of the world to come to Aachen.
The pièce de résistance is the Church of St. Mary, which provides the basis for the Imperial Cathedral, the coronation church of the Holy Roman Empire. Thirty kings would receive their crowns in it over six centuries. In the Middle Ages, the Octagon is pure state of the art. Charles has his church filled with important relics, the mortal remains of saints and objects which these holy people owned. For people in the Middle Ages, relics are more valuable than gold and precious stones. Pilgrims flood in their thousands to Aachen. To create more space, after exactly six hundred years the Octagon is extended by a Gothic choir, which the citizens of Aachen lovingly call the “Glass House”.
Pictures: ©WDR
Facts
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Original TitleDer Aachener Kaiserdom
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Year2014
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Length45' (GER, ENG subs)
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ResolutionHD
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Film byMartin Papirowski, Martin Blachmann
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Produced by