In Aachen, Ancient Relics Have a Home in a Beautifully Rebuilt City

Only a few months before the Diet of Worms, Luther's royal inquisitor, Charles V, was crowned Holy Roman emperor in the town of Aachen. I wanted to see the famous imperial cathedral where Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, and about 30 successive German kings were crowned. Charles V was the last Christian leader to try to consolidate the entire Christian world under one theology. But he ran smack into Martin Luther. His reign (1519-1556) is defined as much by his war on Protestantism as by his defense of Vienna against the Ottoman Turks.

Aachen is a three-hour drive north of Worms. As the most westerly city in Germany, hard by the Dutch and Belgian borders, it was the first German city that Allied forces entered in World War II. In late September and early October 1943, Allied bombing virtually obliterated the town. What was left was destroyed by some of the fiercest street fighting of the war.

With this recent history, I was surprised to find a lively, beautifully reconstructed town, with pleasant pedestrian walkways, high-fashion shopping and superior restaurants.

Aachen is really a city of facades; only the fronts of the few surviving old buildings were kept, while the insides were rebuilt in a modern style. The city hall and the cathedral anchor the city center, with Aachen University only a few blocks away. The famous Aachen hot springs emanate from the Eifel Mountains to the southwest. Charlemagne made Aachen his home, it is said, because in the ill health of his later life, the waters of Aachen gave him comfort.

A late-afternoon coffee at the old-style Cafe Leo van den Daele, accompanied by the distinctive Aachen gingerbread cookies called printen, is the way to begin an evening, followed by a gourmet dinner in the rathskeller in the basement of the impressive town hall.

The most distinctive feature of the Imperial Cathedral is its octagon-shaped dome, which resembles a crown. The veneration of Charlemagne (who was made a saint by an anti-pope in 1145) is everywhere. It is said that when his successor, Otto III, came to pay homage in the year 1000, nearly 200 years after Charlemagne's death, there was the first Holy Roman Emperor, seated upright on a throne in his tomb. His fingernails and teeth were still growing.

Greedily, I took in the sites: the marble throne where the kings were crowned, the chandelier representing the crown of the New Jerusalem from the Book of Revelation, and the reliquaries.

The most important reliquary, said to contain the loincloth Jesus wore on the cross and a towel that wrapped the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, is opened every seven years for pilgrims' viewing. A few years ago, scientists tested the loincloth and determined that it dated from the second century after Jesus's death. Nevertheless, the next opening is still planned for the year 2014.

-- J.R.