Charlemagne's capital — Europe's oldest UNESCO site and the thermal spa where Roman emperors bathed
Aachen was the imperial capital of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire and the place where 30 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned between 813 and 1531. The octagonal Palatine Chapel (now the Aachen Cathedral) built by Charlemagne around 800 CE is one of the oldest buildings in Germany and was Europe's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The city sits on hot sulphur springs known since Roman times; the Carolus Thermen thermal baths still use the same waters.
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French) owes its rise to Charlemagne, who chose the thermal spring town as his permanent capital around 794 CE. He built the Palatine Chapel as part of a palace complex and died here in 814. His tomb in the cathedral became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Europe — Charlemagne was canonized by Antipope Paschal III in 1165. After Charlemagne's successors divided the empire, Aachen lost political significance but remained the coronation city; German kings were crowned here until 1531. Napoleon held a summit in Aachen in 1818 — the first ma…