{"id":2669,"date":"2016-04-18T19:06:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T17:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/?p=2669"},"modified":"2016-04-19T10:05:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T08:05:21","slug":"aachener-dom-cathedral-domschatzkammer-cathedral-treasury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/2016\/04\/aachener-dom-cathedral-domschatzkammer-cathedral-treasury\/","title":{"rendered":"Aachener Dom (Cathedral) and Domschatzkammer (Cathedral Treasury)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aachen\u00a0-like so many other cities in Germany- clearly show the scars of World War II. The Allied Forces mercilessly bombed German cities of any importance in order to weaken the Nazi regime and Aachen was no exception. If that was not enough, Aachen also became in the frontline of an intense battle between the American and German army in October 1944, destroying large parts of the city. Luckily for us today some of the most important buildings were spared and still there to visit, among them the Aachener Dom<\/i>. In 1978 it was one of the first 12 sites to make the entry into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. It was the first German site and one of the first three European sites to be admitted. Two decades of restoration work on the dome was completed in 2006.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Aachener<\/a>

Aachener Dom<\/p><\/div>\n

\"MILNG005994\"<\/a>

Aachener Dom area during\u00a0World War II<\/p><\/div>\n

Aachen is nowadays a city with some 250.000 inhabitants and\u00a0is situated\u00a0close to the Belgium and Dutch border. Besides the Aachener Dom\u00a0the city center contains interesting buildings like the Rathaus <\/i>and the\u00a0Elisenbrunnen,<\/i>\u00a0an 18th century center for the rich Europeans that came to Aachen for its curing\u00a0Mineral Wasser Brunnen<\/i> (mineral water sources). Such\u00a0buildings\u00a0remind us\u00a0of Aachen’s rich and important place in European history. Of those buildings the\u00a0Aachen’s Cathedral –Dom<\/i> as the German people name it-\u00a0is the most visible and important.<\/span><\/p>\n

The history of the Dom goes back 1200 years when Charlemagne reigned in large parts of Europe and tried to restore the grandeur and importance of the Roman empire. Charlemagne\u00a0made Aachen into one of his residences\u00a0within his empire. In Aachen\u00a0he would settle a few months throughout the year with his royal court. In later times, during the medieval age the Dom was used to crown the German emperors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Charlemagne<\/a>

Charlemagne as depicted in a 14th century bust<\/p><\/div>\n

From the outside the Dom\u00a0does not immediately impressed me like for example the Cologne Dom. It clearly consists of different parts that were built over\u00a0very different periods and the ongoing constructions \u00a0make it difficult to get a good overall impression of the outside \u00a0the Dom. The entrance of the Dom might appear\u00a0a bit underwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The modest entrance to the Dom<\/p><\/div>\n

We are entering here through one of the earliest stages of the church established by\u00a0Charlemagne. In the entrance hall\u00a0you pass by two\u00a0very ancient Roman sculptures: a bronze pine cone and a wolf. Then you enter the main hall of the Dom. This is a very impressive experience: the decorations on the walls and ceilings are truly splendid.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The decorations of the Dom’s ceilings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The decorations of the Dom’s ceilings<\/p><\/div>\n

Keep remembering though that what you see are treasures from very different periods. Some of the golden relics date from between 1000\u00a0to\u00a01400. The main foundation of the church with its beautiful columns from marble and granite dates from the time of Charlemagne. The stained-glass windows are from relatively recent dates (post World War II).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The stained-glass windows of the Dom<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Civitatis<\/a>

Civitatis Dei (Home of God), a beautiful ceiling mosaic<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After your visit to the Dom I advise you to\u00a0go to a close location:\u00a0the\u00a0Dom Information Center<\/i>. Here you can reserve your place for a\u00a0guided tour that allows you to visit places that are not accessible for the common visitor. The tour takes around 45 minutes and takes place every hour. The admission fee is around 5 euro. In the same office you can buy tickets for the\u00a0Domschatzkammer,\u00a0<\/i>the treasury of the Dom. Tickets for the treasury a little more expensive than the tour tickets, buit it is totally worth visiting the\u00a0treasury\u00a0for there are so many beautiful paintings, sculptures, textiles and other objects to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Entrance<\/a>

Entrance to the treasury<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I do not pretend to have a very extensive knowledge of European cathedrals but from the ones\u00a0I have visited I can say that the Aachener Dom<\/i> is among the most beautiful places to visit. The Dom<\/em>Schatzkammer<\/i> contributes to the experience of visiting a place that clearly shows the rich and glorious past of Aachen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ewald Kegel, <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

-April 12th 2016, The Hague-<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aachen\u00a0-like so many other cities in Germany- clearly show the scars of World War II. The Allied Forces mercilessly bombed German cities of any importance in order to weaken the Nazi regime and Aachen was no exception. If that was… (READ MORE)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[285,286,287,289,288,140,290],"class_list":["post-2669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travelling","tag-aachen","tag-dom","tag-schatzkammer","tag-tourism","tag-treasury","tag-vacation","tag-visiting-aachener-dom-and-domschatzkammer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2669"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conedm.nl\/denald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}