Note: I have figured out how to bring up the quality of the photos slightly -- some things have been re-loaded, the cartoons as well as portions of the Marksburg set.
The first photo I took of part of the church -- quite an imposing structure:
A small model of the church:
Bronze doors leading into the cathedral. They aren't opened anymore, but there is a lot of interesting history attached to them. For one, the Devil's thumb is meant to be stuck in the mouth of the lion on your right. I felt around extensively, but no luck:
Sven, my Führer ('Führer' is the word used by Germans for 'tourguide'):
This sculpture of a bear/wolf-like creature is located just inside the church. It used to be a fountain, evidenced by the hole in the chest. This came from Rome and it is older than the church itself, which is dated as having been started in 786:
Inside the cathedral. This is an image of the ceiling with its mosaic of Christ as judge of mankind. Stunning, important to experience in person:
A chandelier commissioned by some rich patron of Charlemagne. More interesting history that I have trouble relating properly. I do recall that it is meant to be a representation of the new Jerusalem, the one to be founded after the coming of Christ -- hence the structure and gilding. There must be a book someone can buy on all this (and it would be a worthwhile purchase.):
These pillars are quite a bit older than the church itself; I think they date back to the third or fourth century. They were brought from Rome to Aachen:
The windows of the Gothic Choir; the tallest windows of any cathedral in Europe. The glass in these windows, sorry to say, is relatively new. The glass has been replaced, in total, three times - the last time after the windows were destroyed either by a hail storm or allied bombings in WWII. I can't remember which came first:
It's said that Charlemagne's bones are kept in this gilded box. A complete skeleton isn't actually contained within; only 94 bones of someone who might have been Charlemagne are present. The missing bones were snagged by other kings who were crowned in this place; I guess they took them as souvenirs, hoping to siphon off for themselves some of the greatness of Charlemagne. One hopes they didn't have any dogs:
The throne of Charlemagne, assembled from bits of what used to be the floor of a building in Jerusalem. 'They' believe this is quite authentic; this particular kind of marble is only found in what used to be Rome's eastern provinces, and may even date back to the time of Christ. On the side of the throne not shown here, you can faintly see a traditional Roman game (something like tic-tac-toe, probably played by soldiers) scratched into one of the slabs:
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A square in Aachen:
And a street:
An odd sculpture with little bronze puppets. I loved this:
A brass band playing outside the cathedral. I could swear these same people showed up outside last night's Sibelius/Shostakovich concert (a blurry picture or two from that later):
A nice little dog I passed on my way back to the bus:
Another set of sculptures:
