Aachen

Last night it was raining for at least the 5th day in a row. Not having anything in particular planned I was looking through my German sightseeing book that was a great gift. I found a town called Aachen was a must see. What would the most interesting sight be? The Aachen Dom of course. Now for those of you who had never heard of Aachen before it is the city where Charlemagne, crowned the Franconian emporer in Rome ab. 800, kept his throne.
Back in the day people apparently had lots of money to toss around and made ridiculously large and awesome silver and gold sculptures and objects. In the glass case and hanging from the ceiling are two examples of gilded silver donations to the church. Note the fantastic stained glass windows in the background. Although this dom is not as large and grandiose as the Kölner Dom, this really wasn't the main attraction in Aachen.
Being an emporer of a major portion of Europe was a big deal. Charlemagne nearly doubled the size of the Franconian empire while on the throne. So obviously he was given many gifts by other leaders and countries to keep him happy and off the war path. This made the Aachen treasury one of the most interesting and rich treasuries outside of Egypt, and the Saudis. There were so many different awesome relics in the museum. I saw Charlemagne's sarcophagus he got from Rome (dating back to the second century) made of marble and intricately sculpted. So this was his resting place for about 400 years until he was canonized around 1165. So many, many years after his death, kings were still donating things to him. One of the oddities and cool things though is that after canonization people make Reliquaries to store important objects related to that person. What could be important you ask? Check this gift from Charles the IV in 1349...
That's a closeup of the partly gilded silver repousse bust of Charlemagne. This was carried to the city gate every time a new king came to town to be crowned. But I said earlier that these reliquaries stored things right? Well x-rays of the bust show that Charlemagne's cranium is stored in the anatomically correct position inside the bust... Sweet! But that's not the half of it. Below is the Reliquary of Charlemagne. An awesome chapel reliquary (1 of two) but this one actually has a special item that can be seen inside of it... look near the lower third on the right. Yes, that is the femur of Charlemagne.
Last but not least here is a picture that has my reflection in it to prove I was there... haha... it does have a slight reflection but what is of interest is the object. This is the Flabellum Reliquary Disc. In the center is supposed to be a bit of the sponge which Christ was given to drink while hanging on the cross. This was made in the middle of the 14th century probably from the same shop that made the above reliquary.
So a totally awesome and informative evening was had. If anyone gets a chance I highly recommend going to Aachen. It's also interesting that I've gotten comments already that I've been to more places than some of the people who live here.