According to any tourist book worth its weight in Bavarian beer, Aachen is most well-known for its 'Dom' or the main cathedral. It obviously then goes without saying that I hadn't visited it as yet. Because in all my infinite wisdom, I believe one must go backwards in the holy order of tourist-iness ... i.e. visit the lesser known places first and then go to the motherlode of Patel snaps. (Meaning of patel snap described here http://stuffdesislike.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/29-patel-snaps/)
But I did finally venture there, and was fairly impressed. I had made a mention of the Holy Relics of Aachen in one of my previous posts, and dude - these guys sure do know how to relic-ify stuff! Pikchurs below ...
Also found a cute little devil on one of the side wings ...
Super legend about the building of the Aachen Cathedral, and how it was supposedly sponsored by none other than Satan himself ... http://www.travelgermanyinenglish.com/aachendevilpaidforcathedral.html I always find the local legends to be supremely fascinating and in this case, fairly dark as well ... I wouldn't have liked to know that my primary place of worship had been funded by you-know-who, and I don't mean Lord Voldemort.
As you enter this first part of the Church, there is the gorgeous stained glass paintings of the St Nicholas Chapel ... and from here you take a little swing into main octagonal cathedral.
Of course as with all old churches, it is the main altar that literally grabs you ...
The gold chest to the front contains the 4 Great Aachen Relics - the robe of Mother Mary, the swaddling clothes of Baby Jesus, St John's beheading cloth (ugh) and Christ's loincloth - brought to Aachen by the Head Dude Charlemagne ... these are exhibited to the faithful every 7 years in this super huge ceremony. Read my previous post for more details ... http://sushmabharath.blogspot.com/2010/05/and-i-thought-it-was-just-another-city.html
A closer look at the gorgeous centre-piece of the shrine ...
And the centre-piece and the 'Golden Ambo' or Pulpit ... yes all that is gold, diamonds and other ridiculously expensive pieces of stuff.
Some more pictures from around the cathedral that struck my artistic fancy ...
And now that I have successfully enriched your lives with the sharing of knowledge, its time to have my bath. Yes, yes ... you have been reading the post of someone who hasn't even bathed yet. AHAH! Not to fear though ... I am almost one step into the tub as I type these letters out.
BTW I think my number of readers have gone up by one. Heavens rejoice!
Toodle-do and all that ...
Sush
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