Aachen royal throne

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The royal throne in Aachen Cathedral
Side view of the throne seat
Incised mill game

The Aachen royal throne , also called the throne of Charlemagne or Karlsthron , is a throne built in the 790s by order of Emperor Charlemagne , which was part of the furnishings of his Palatine Chapel , today's Aachen Cathedral , where it has been erected in the Hochmünster since its creation .

He served on the coronation of Louis the Pious vice-emperor in the year 813 and from the coronation of Otto the Great to the Roman-German king in the year 936 to the coronation of Ferdinand I in 1531 over 30 Roman-German kings as coronation seat . Therefore, as early as the eleventh century, the Aachen royal throne was spoken of as the totius regni archisolium , the ore chair of the entire empire .

Charlemagne himself was not crowned king in Aachen, but in Noyon in 768 and emperor ( Augustus ) in Rome in 800 . However, he most likely attended the masses held in the Palatine Chapel on this throne .

layout

The royal throne is extremely plain and simple; Ornaments are completely absent. Six steps lead to the seat, which is built on a substructure. The chair itself consists of four marble slabs held together with bronze brackets , which, according to recent investigations, as well as the steps around 800 , were taken from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Another (unconfirmed) interpretation refers to the palace stairs of Pilate , which Jesus stepped up after his flagellation. On one of the two side panels there are fine, incised lines that probably served as a playing field for an ancient mill game . The back panel even shows an early depiction of the crucifixion scene . From the surface treatment and the pagan and Christian incisions from different epochs, it can be concluded that the panels were used for at least the third time.

The wooden inner structure, which is now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn , served as a substructure for the marble seat plate, which is now lost. This included a compartment in which - as recent research shows - the coronation reliquary or parts of it, but especially the Stephansbursa , were kept. A radiocarbon dating showed that the oak top karolingisch is dated to the 800th

The throne rests on four stone pillars. This made it possible for visitors to St. Mary's Church at a later time to crawl under the throne, which on the one hand was a humble attitude towards the newly consecrated ruler and on the other hand certainly also a gesture of homage to Jesus Christ, who is related to the constitutive marble slabs (see below Symbolism ), expressed. The polished interior surfaces of the four pillars show that over the centuries countless visitors must have completed this passage.

The throne seat has withstood all the alterations and destruction in the chapel over the centuries. However, in the course of the measures initiated by the cathedral chapter to protect the valuable furnishings of the cathedral and cathedral treasures from war damage from bombs and extinguishing water in the Second World War, it was covered with cardboard containing tar, filled with sand and walled in. The tar paper resulted in the dirty yellow discolouration that is visible today, which was not removed in order to preserve the ancient graffiti.

Original pieces of the Carolingian floor covering can be found in the passage below the Karl's throne and in the immediate vicinity of it. The precious stone types selected for this come from ancient remains and have been laid according to the model of Italian representative buildings. The original floor covering is made up of white marble, spinach green antique porphyry and red porphyry from Egypt. The material may come from the palace of Theodoric the Great in Ravenna , where very similar floors are found.

  • Aachen royal throne

  • Front

  • right side

  • Left side

  • back

symbolism

The throne, the references of which qualify it as an outstanding document of the Carolingian Renaissance , is located in the west gallery of the upper gallery - called Hochmünster - of the Carolingian octagon.

The placement of the throne is in a close structural context to the Palatinate Chapel, the proportions of which, expressed in numbers , are intended to represent a symbolic image of the Heavenly Jerusalem . The seat of the ruler, which was probably designed according to the biblical model of Solomon's throne , was assigned the highest place - also through the arrangement in a gallery that placed the ruler in a separate sphere - and thus unmistakable symbolic power for the claim to secular and spiritual rule over the kingdom and conferred the mediator function between heaven and earth. The number of steps could be of symbolic relevance, because according to 1 Kings 10.19  EU , Solomon's throne also had six steps and was in a hall opposite the temple with its cubic sanctuary ( 1 Kings 7,6f.  EU ). A conscious reference to the Solomonic model would fit with Charles's unconditional, universal claim to rule and sense of mission as the ruler of a Christian world empire over a new chosen people of God and thus, as it were, as the new Solomon. This interpretation is reinforced by Charles's proven admiration as king for the certainly at least equally glorious father and predecessor of Solomon, King David , whose role as governor of God on earth Karl always strove to match. In the year 801 it even says: “We gave Karl the name 'David' at court.” This message is underlined by the use of marble from the Holy Land , which as a spolie from the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Christ and thus on the idea of divine grace refers. According to medieval beliefs, the marble slabs were consecrated as holy relics through the touch of Christ . In order to be careful of this, the irregular thickness of the panels and the unsightly surface structure have been accepted. The imperial throne is placed in the western part of the chapel, which faces west to east. The enthroned ruler looks to the east in the expectation that Judgment Day will dawn from this point of the compass and thus the end of all worldly rule will take place (cf. Ad orientem ).

The four pillars on a stone pedestal represent the earth ruled by the ruler of the world with its four elements - fire, water, air and earth, according to ancient ideas -, their seasons and directions . A reference to the four paradise rivers that bring fertility to the earth can also be seen here .

Most likely, in the room behind the Charlemagne throne, a St. Michael dedicated altar stood. Accordingly, taking a seat on the king's chair, the crowned one could trust that the archangel literally "had his back".

literature

  • Leo Hugot : The royal throne in Aachen Cathedral. In: Koldewey Society . Report on the 29th Conference for Excavation Science and Building Research from 26.-30. May 1976 in Cologne. Cologne 1976, pp. 36-42.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme (text), Ann Münchow (recordings): The Aachen Cathedral. Architecture and equipment. Einhard, Aachen 1994, ISBN 978-3-920284-87-3 , pp. 48-55.
  • Sven Schütte : The Aachen throne. In: Mario Kramp (Ed.): Coronations, Kings in Aachen. History and myth. Catalog, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2617-3 , pp. 213-222.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme: The Aachen Cathedral. Einhard, Aachen 2000, ISBN 978-3-930701-75-9 , pp. 37-40.
  • Katharina Corsepius: The Aachen "Karlsthron" between ceremonial and ruler's memoria. In: Marion Steinicke, Stefan Weinfurter (eds.): Investiture and coronation rituals. Assertions of power in a cultural comparison. Böhlau, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-412-09604-0 , pp. 359-375.
  • Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, pp. 37–45.
  • Walter Maas, Pit Siebigs: The Aachen Cathedral. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7954-2445-9 , pp. 68-77.
  • Jan Pieper , Bruno Schindler: Throne and Altar, Octagon and Hexagon. The iconography of the rule of the Carolingian Palatine Chapel in Aachen. Scriptorium Carolinum, Volume 5, Geymüller Verlag für Architektur, Aachen - Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-943164-3-81 .

Web links

Commons : Aachener Königsthron  - Collection of images

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 38.
  2. ↑ a b c d Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 41.
  3. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 39.
  4. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 44.
  5. ↑ a b Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 45.
  6. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 42 f.
  7. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 40.
  8. ↑ Hans Jürgen Roth: An image of the sky. Aachen Cathedral - liturgy, bible, art. Thouet, Aachen 2011, p. 42.

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 28.7 ″  N , 6 ° 5 ′ 1.6 ″  E