Page "Aachen" Paragraph 8

After Roman times, Einhard mentions that in 765 – 6 Pippin the Younger spent both Christmas and Easter at Aquis villa (""), which must have been sufficiently equipped to support the royal household for several months.

In the year of his coronation as King of Franks, 768, Charlemagne came to spend Christmas at Aachen for the first time.

He went on to remain there in a mansion which he may have extended, although there is no source attesting to any significant building activity at Aachen in his time, apart from the building of the Palatine Chapel in Aachen ( since 1929, cathedral ) and the palatial presentation halls.

Charlemagne spent most winters between 792 and his death in 814 in Aachen, which became the focus of his court and the political centre of his empire.

After his death, the king was buried in the church which he had built ; his original tomb has been lost, while his alleged remains are preserved in the shrine where he was reburied after being declared a saint ; his saintliness, however, was never very widely acknowledged outside the bishopric of Liège where he may still be venerated by tradition.