Church and UNESCO World Heritage Site

Around 800, Charlemagne had St Mary’s Church (now the cathedral) built next to his palace in Aachen. The church building was extended over the centuries with the addition of chapels. Masses have been celebrated here every day for 1200 years. To this day, the cathedral combines ecclesiastical functions and historical traditions:

– burial church for the emperors Charlemagne and Otto III.
– Coronation church of the Roman-German kings from 936 to 1531
– Important pilgrimage church throughout Europe (Heiligtumsfahrt)
– Episcopal church of the diocese of Aachen since 1930.

Due to its extraordinary architectural and art-historical significance, the cathedral was the first German World Heritage Site to be inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1978.