3:17 "Henry II managed to become king and emperor" - and he did so in my little home village in Bavaria! In 1002, he was heading to meet the funeral procession of his predecessor Otto III, which came on the Via Claudia from Italy, and happened to meet them in my home village Polling in Upper Bavaria. Our monastery was still in ruins since the Hun invasion in 955. But eight years later, in 1010, Henry II remembered where he de facto had become king and emperor, and he re-established the monastery, which then thrived for another 800 years …
Those arches of two colors are very iconic and influential, even in today’s pop culture. The set designer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy drew on those when designing the palace throne room in Minas Tirith, seen in the Return of the King.
I visited the dome a few years ago, including the treasury and Charlemagne's throne. It's magnificient. I never felt the weight of history, as you put it, so much as in this place. Actually, to me it doesn't feel so much as a weight, but more as sublime majesty that irradiates from this building.
Beautiful! I have never heard of this chapel. So much history. Thank you for showing this, I love history and ancestry. Charlemagne is one of my ancient ancestors.
Wow - I had no idea the Aachen chapel had so many layers of history to see. As with all your videos (even those covering art or architecture of which I am familiar), you tell me something new. Thank you! :)
i rarely comment on videos, but i just want to say that i enjoy the content that you guys create. i can tell how passionate you are at sharing facts about art history and techniques. thanks for keeping history interesting!
what an insane building, crazy amalgamation, and amazing art history lesson in itself ... despite the cacophony of styles occurring, it's amazing in a sense that it's still standing and among us
When visiting, please visit the treasury in the basement. It's called the Domschatzkammer, and it contains a most interesting and memorable collection of artifacts and treasures.
Timely for today. 🙃 The view around 0:30 was so stunning. Another place I could only imagine walking into and being breathless. This intro definitely had me curious about how other famous / historical buildings, landmarks, etc have been preserved and maintained / or inevitably changed over time. Oh my gosh, the Ottonians knew how to party - that doggone ambo is gorgeous! I can't imagine not noticing it - I'd be marveling at the beauty and randomness of it for a long time before staring at something else. Dr. Harris made me laugh around 5:45: "Ey yo, Vinnie! Lemme get some spolia!" I'm so mad at myself for thinking of that and laughing as much as I am, but I guess I'm already primed to think about New York when I come here. Gonna play my Freud card and blame my subconscious. 😌 The breakdown of the Chapel's history at the end was so impressive. I just want to breathe the air in a place like that...
Thank You for this history lesson featuring a landmark in my family's birthplace. I have visited Aachen a few times in my adult life, and always made time to wander through the Aachener Dom. History pours through the building, and I soak it up. You explain the various layers of its very long life so well; I can feel the flow of history as it changes the structure over the centuries.
I went on a guided tour of the chapel and learned that during WWII there was a bombing raid on Aachen where one of the bombs went through a stained glass window and landed in the middle of the cathedral... and didn't go off. It was a dud. Almost enough to make you religious.
Great video! I had no idea the interior was mostly a 19th century 'restoration'. It's interesting you point that out, I feel that many videos and articles about ancient buildings often leave out how much restoration often occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, giving the impression all of what you see is original.
I'm not usually a learning person, but you guys make videos that are fun and very educational at the same time! I'm glad my teacher found you guys.. c: I enjoy Art History!
This was awesome! It;s the first time I've watched a satisfyingly informative historic video on European monuments. I hope you include Charlie's throne located on the second floor in another video. Thanks!
How come it is crammed in-between other buildings and not standing alone like churches usually are? is it because it is a Chapel, or something that have happen over hundreds of years? Very interested by the way, how you presents art most people have no idea about, thanks
It's a good question. There are certainly churches that stand beside other structures and as you noted, chapels were often built beside and often connected to a palace as is the case here. Another well know example is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua that now stands alone but was originally connected to a palace. ua-cam.com/video/ZPJ9g-GPa2s/v-deo.html
Many churches and cathedrals that stand alone in a large square today were originally squeezed into the network of alleys in their city during the Middle Ages. Only later eras attempted to create space so that they could be viewed as a whole without obstruction. Fun fact: Here in Augsburg, a street had to be moved when the new Gothic high choir was added to the Romanesque cathedral in the 14th century. (It still runs around the cathedral in a horseshoe shape today.) But the market women would not put up with this and won the right to take their carts directly through the cathedral, as they were accustomed to doing.
@@hape3862 -hehehe! Pulling their carts trough the cathedral!?!? That's women with a practical attitude and the priorities right, probably that's why we humans do so good also, the ability for clear thinking
Henry II is how he is broadly known and commonly referred to in the English speaking world. I suppose since he was King of Italy we could also call him Enrico!
Great video! To some extent, it is a misconception to say that the Ottonians considered themselves as having inherited the Roman Empire. According to their narrative, they *were* the Roman Empire.
We did visit Cologne Cathedral on this trip. By the way we do have videos from previous visits on work from Munich and Berlin etc. We followed the Rhine more or less this time.
Sometimes we forget how hard life can be. And powerful men pay homeage to other powerful men, because they think that will bring them luck. That acting like other lucky people, will make them succesful. And essentially, it does. Let learn from our forebears and become a good society again.
Why the carolingian ( todays republic of france) empire is not portrayed all the way until Porto? In the Reconquest that started in poitiers and tours, and in the same campaign of 801, the carolingians occupied all north of the old Terraconensis, o by the Catalans of Tarragona
Thanks for your videos. The work that you are doing is great. I respect you for speaking so passionately about various places and objects from not only the western culture. However, I would like to criticize you for ignoring Central Eastern Europe. I know that Italy or France are more famous, but honestly in other regions there are also plenty of interesting stuff. In Warsaw you have one of the 3 best paintings of Rembrandt, The Girl in a Picture Frame. In Vilnius there is an exceptional gothic church of St. Anna. When you omit this part of Europe you cannot really discover the architecture of the Orthodox church. Hundreds of people have written about Michael Angelo or generally the western culture. Maybe show us places that hardly anyone knows about. Another region that is poorly illustrated is the Balkans with a fascinating religious mix of Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and Jews. Again I admire you for doing these great videos but if you want to show the full picture of European civilization you need take everything into account not just the more famous part of it.
All fair points. Have you looked at our Eastern European content on Smarthistory.org? We absolutely need more but there may be things there that you are unaware of such as the church of Church of St. Nicholas in Balinesti, Romania smarthistory.org/church-of-st-nicholas-balinesti/, the Altneushul in Prague smarthistory.org/altneuschul/, the Byzantine frescoes at Saint Panteleimon, Nerezi in North Macedonia smarthistory.org/byzantine-frescoes-nerezi/ or the Gwoździec Synagogue, in Ukraine smarthistory.org/the-gwozdziec-synagogue/ We hope to add new content from Eastern and South Eastern Europe soon.
Это какое-то СВЯТОЕ ИСКУССТВО, на мой взгляд. Как кто-то мог покушаться на его целостность! Какие-то французы, Наполеон, etc. This is some HOLY ART, in my opinion. How could someone encroach on his integrity! Some French, Napoleon, etc.
Essentially the Franks were German kings in a romanized Gaul. To the Germans the Roman world obviously was very prestigious. And the best way to impress the world was to rule over Rome itself, and I think that's how they saw it. As Gaul had been Rome ever since Caesar came there. Five hundred years when the Franks came there. That's as long as the Netherlands has been a nation. And thus they adapted the ways of the people there, instead of imposing their own ways on them. And that included christianity at this point in time. Even though it had originally nothing to do with Romans. That's how I see it at least.
"The Holy Roman Empire" which the much later smiling-pictured Voltaire of the XVIIIth c. enlightenment described as being neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Those striped arches we see here in the ambulatory were evidently used by Peter Jackson for the King's Hall where the steward Denethor sits in Tolkien's "The Return of the King" (see link to an interesting article about architectural use in LotR below (SH I hope you don't mind my posting this link under your video, but I think you may be interested in reading this too🙏🏽). And I think the very conscientious self-editor Tolkien might just have approved of Jackson's use of these striped arches in his created milieu for the film (just, lol).💙
Cannot add link, so pls search the following in a Google field: Architectures of Middle-earth How to study, understand and compare the architecture of Middle-earth in relation to ours. the kings hall.
Charlemagne would have had to ask the Byzantine Exarch in Ravenna for anything from there. This was Imperial property, not Papal, in Charlemagne's time
Respectfully, I don't think that is correct. The Lombards had taken Ravenna by about 750. Then of course Charlemagne dispatched the Lombards about 25 years later. Pope Adrian granted Charlemagne these fragments for his new palace.
Honestly when I look back in history, despite the church trying to be fanatic about christianity, it never really became that for kings nor commoners. Despite or perhaps also because of the persecution against their own beliefs. One wonders why this faith was taken up by the Romans in the first place. All other conversions just seem like an attempt at aligning oneself with Rome. With the riches, the gold, the knowledge and so forth.
@faramund9865 Eh, people tend to get the wild idea that the church was constantly trying to persecute people, but for the vast majority of history this wasn’t the case. People see the crazy exceptions and take them to be the rule.
In its diversity and longevity this building is like no other, I'm glad you visited this remarkable gem.
3:17 "Henry II managed to become king and emperor" - and he did so in my little home village in Bavaria! In 1002, he was heading to meet the funeral procession of his predecessor Otto III, which came on the Via Claudia from Italy, and happened to meet them in my home village Polling in Upper Bavaria. Our monastery was still in ruins since the Hun invasion in 955. But eight years later, in 1010, Henry II remembered where he de facto had become king and emperor, and he re-established the monastery, which then thrived for another 800 years …
Ich glaube, das ist zu viel Detailwissen für unsere Freunde, obwohl es natürlich stimmt.
@@vonpfrentsch Hihi, my local patriotism sometimes gets the better of me.🫣
@@hape3862 that’s only fair. Where would we be without it. Greetings from Berlin!
So what happened in and about 1810?
@@moozillamoo2109 yeah I wanna know too
Your videos are always amazing! They're easy to understand, clear and neat. It's such a pleasure to watch and listen to them.
Those arches of two colors are very iconic and influential, even in today’s pop culture. The set designer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy drew on those when designing the palace throne room in Minas Tirith, seen in the Return of the King.
I visited the dome a few years ago, including the treasury and Charlemagne's throne. It's magnificient. I never felt the weight of history, as you put it, so much as in this place. Actually, to me it doesn't feel so much as a weight, but more as sublime majesty that irradiates from this building.
Its amazing after all this time we still have the bones of Charlemagne
And needless to say, another excellent presentation.
Steve and Beth your the best, love your presentation, it’s so soothing
You can clearly see here that great art is always international. Thank you so much.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you for the excellent video.
Beautiful! I have never heard of this chapel. So much history. Thank you for showing this, I love history and ancestry. Charlemagne is one of my ancient ancestors.
Wow - I had no idea the Aachen chapel had so many layers of history to see. As with all your videos (even those covering art or architecture of which I am familiar), you tell me something new. Thank you! :)
Yet another SUPERB video
Brilliant! Wish this had been around when I visited Aachen in 2008.
Oh. I live right next to that church. Great to see it being covered! :D
i rarely comment on videos, but i just want to say that i enjoy the content that you guys create. i can tell how passionate you are at sharing facts about art history and techniques. thanks for keeping history interesting!
Thank you so much!
Thanks, got all my questions answered.
what an insane building, crazy amalgamation, and amazing art history lesson in itself ... despite the cacophony of styles occurring, it's amazing in a sense that it's still standing and among us
A succinct and effective presentation! Bravo and many thanks!
When visiting, please visit the treasury in the basement. It's called the Domschatzkammer, and it contains a most interesting and memorable collection of artifacts and treasures.
I just can't get over the palettes and colours they had back then. So vibrant. That napoleon picture is still a favourite - stunning!
Timely for today. 🙃
The view around 0:30 was so stunning. Another place I could only imagine walking into and being breathless. This intro definitely had me curious about how other famous / historical buildings, landmarks, etc have been preserved and maintained / or inevitably changed over time.
Oh my gosh, the Ottonians knew how to party - that doggone ambo is gorgeous! I can't imagine not noticing it - I'd be marveling at the beauty and randomness of it for a long time before staring at something else.
Dr. Harris made me laugh around 5:45: "Ey yo, Vinnie! Lemme get some spolia!" I'm so mad at myself for thinking of that and laughing as much as I am, but I guess I'm already primed to think about New York when I come here. Gonna play my Freud card and blame my subconscious. 😌
The breakdown of the Chapel's history at the end was so impressive. I just want to breathe the air in a place like that...
Thank You for this history lesson featuring a landmark in my family's birthplace. I have visited Aachen a few times in my adult life, and always made time to wander through the Aachener Dom. History pours through the building, and I soak it up. You explain the various layers of its very long life so well; I can feel the flow of history as it changes the structure over the centuries.
Wonderful as always.
I went on a guided tour of the chapel and learned that during WWII there was a bombing raid on Aachen where one of the bombs went through a stained glass window and landed in the middle of the cathedral... and didn't go off. It was a dud. Almost enough to make you religious.
A lovely video. Insightful and informative. Thanks.
Wonderfull introduction in this Chapel - THE german building, giving identity and history!
Very very interesting. Thanks
Great video! I had no idea the interior was mostly a 19th century 'restoration'. It's interesting you point that out, I feel that many videos and articles about ancient buildings often leave out how much restoration often occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, giving the impression all of what you see is original.
Love the video. I learned alot. Keep up the great content!
I'm not usually a learning person, but you guys make videos that are fun and very educational at the same time! I'm glad my teacher found you guys.. c: I enjoy Art History!
Are the jewels there the Hoshen stones by any chance?
This was awesome! It;s the first time I've watched a satisfyingly informative historic video on European monuments. I hope you include Charlie's throne located on the second floor in another video. Thanks!
We discuss the throne in an essay here: smarthistory.org/palatine-chapel-aachen/
Amazing what a skilled stonemason can achieve!
How come it is crammed in-between other buildings and not standing alone like churches usually are? is it because it is a Chapel, or something that have happen over hundreds of years? Very interested by the way, how you presents art most people have no idea about, thanks
It's a good question. There are certainly churches that stand beside other structures and as you noted, chapels were often built beside and often connected to a palace as is the case here. Another well know example is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua that now stands alone but was originally connected to a palace. ua-cam.com/video/ZPJ9g-GPa2s/v-deo.html
Many churches and cathedrals that stand alone in a large square today were originally squeezed into the network of alleys in their city during the Middle Ages. Only later eras attempted to create space so that they could be viewed as a whole without obstruction.
Fun fact: Here in Augsburg, a street had to be moved when the new Gothic high choir was added to the Romanesque cathedral in the 14th century. (It still runs around the cathedral in a horseshoe shape today.) But the market women would not put up with this and won the right to take their carts directly through the cathedral, as they were accustomed to doing.
@@hape3862 -hehehe! Pulling their carts trough the cathedral!?!?
That's women with a practical attitude and the priorities right, probably that's why we humans do so good also, the ability for clear thinking
@@smarthistory-art-history - perhaps chapels was built so kings etc didn't need to go outside to get to the church
Great video. A visit to Trier may be in order - it makes a great companion piece to Aachen
We did visit, and hope to have a video on it before too long.
Can I ask why you call them Henry instead of Heinrich?
Henry II is how he is broadly known and commonly referred to in the English speaking world. I suppose since he was King of Italy we could also call him Enrico!
Regnal names commonly get translated even today.
Great video! To some extent, it is a misconception to say that the Ottonians considered themselves as having inherited the Roman Empire. According to their narrative, they *were* the Roman Empire.
Added to bucket list.
Glad it survived WWII. Wasn't there some big battle around Achen?
Yes, the building was heavily restored, yet again, after the war.
Great video! Would love to see Smart History do one on the Cathedral of Saint Domnius in Split.
It is not only the chapel that remained. The palace remained as well, used as town hall.
I believe the town hall was built in the 14th century and is built on the foundation of the earlier palace. It is not a Carolingian building.
@@smarthistory-art-history It's a little more than the foundations. The Granus Tower and parts of the southern wall come from the Carolingian Palas.
Fair enough.
5:05 🎯
Why is it so similar to Cordoba?
I wish the AP art history curriculum went back when it added more forms of art.
Smarthistory makes it easy to go beyond the 250.
They finally went to Germany! Hope to see Cologne Cathedral in your videos!
We did visit Cologne Cathedral on this trip. By the way we do have videos from previous visits on work from Munich and Berlin etc. We followed the Rhine more or less this time.
@@smarthistory-art-history Good to know. Thanks! Looking forward to the upcoming videos.
My grandparents were from Aachen
And I just go there everyday and think to myself mh fancy 😭
The arches look very similar to Ummayad arches in Spain
Sometimes we forget how hard life can be.
And powerful men pay homeage to other powerful men, because they think that will bring them luck. That acting like other lucky people, will make them succesful. And essentially, it does. Let learn from our forebears and become a good society again.
Why the carolingian ( todays republic of france) empire is not portrayed all the way until Porto? In the Reconquest that started in poitiers and tours, and in the same campaign of 801, the carolingians occupied all north of the old Terraconensis, o by the Catalans of Tarragona
Thanks for your videos. The work that you are doing is great. I respect you for speaking so passionately about various places and objects from not only the western culture. However, I would like to criticize you for ignoring Central Eastern Europe. I know that Italy or France are more famous, but honestly in other regions there are also plenty of interesting stuff. In Warsaw you have one of the 3 best paintings of Rembrandt, The Girl in a Picture Frame. In Vilnius there is an exceptional gothic church of St. Anna. When you omit this part of Europe you cannot really discover the architecture of the Orthodox church. Hundreds of people have written about Michael Angelo or generally the western culture. Maybe show us places that hardly anyone knows about. Another region that is poorly illustrated is the Balkans with a fascinating religious mix of Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and Jews. Again I admire you for doing these great videos but if you want to show the full picture of European civilization you need take everything into account not just the more famous part of it.
All fair points. Have you looked at our Eastern European content on Smarthistory.org? We absolutely need more but there may be things there that you are unaware of such as the church of Church of St. Nicholas in Balinesti, Romania smarthistory.org/church-of-st-nicholas-balinesti/, the Altneushul in Prague smarthistory.org/altneuschul/, the Byzantine frescoes at Saint Panteleimon, Nerezi in North Macedonia smarthistory.org/byzantine-frescoes-nerezi/ or the Gwoździec Synagogue, in Ukraine smarthistory.org/the-gwozdziec-synagogue/ We hope to add new content from Eastern and South Eastern Europe soon.
Have you looked at Smarthistory.org - our website? You might be surprised by what you find there.
Это какое-то СВЯТОЕ ИСКУССТВО, на мой взгляд. Как кто-то мог покушаться на его целостность! Какие-то французы, Наполеон, etc.
This is some HOLY ART, in my opinion. How could someone encroach on his integrity! Some French, Napoleon, etc.
So underneath the paint is actual history
Yes, though there isn't much paint visible. The walls are covered in stone and glass mosaic.
Essentially the Franks were German kings in a romanized Gaul. To the Germans the Roman world obviously was very prestigious.
And the best way to impress the world was to rule over Rome itself, and I think that's how they saw it. As Gaul had been Rome ever since Caesar came there. Five hundred years when the Franks came there. That's as long as the Netherlands has been a nation.
And thus they adapted the ways of the people there, instead of imposing their own ways on them. And that included christianity at this point in time. Even though it had originally nothing to do with Romans.
That's how I see it at least.
Yes, but it is important to remember that the Frankish Empire did not only encompass Gaul, but also Germania.
"The Holy Roman Empire" which the much later smiling-pictured Voltaire of the XVIIIth c. enlightenment described as being neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Those striped arches we see here in the ambulatory were evidently used by Peter Jackson for the King's Hall where the steward Denethor sits in Tolkien's "The Return of the King" (see link to an interesting article about architectural use in LotR below (SH I hope you don't mind my posting this link under your video, but I think you may be interested in reading this too🙏🏽).
And I think the very conscientious self-editor Tolkien might just have approved of Jackson's use of these striped arches in his created milieu for the film (just, lol).💙
Cannot add link, so pls search the following in a Google field: Architectures of Middle-earth How to study, understand and compare the architecture of Middle-earth in relation to ours. the kings hall.
Cool.
one of the greatest kings of france ! 🇫🇷🇫🇷
the 19th century changes are what I would call renovations in good faith, not historically accurate but done with good intentions
Charlemagne would have had to ask the Byzantine Exarch in Ravenna for anything from there. This was Imperial property, not Papal, in Charlemagne's time
Respectfully, I don't think that is correct. The Lombards had taken Ravenna by about 750. Then of course Charlemagne dispatched the Lombards about 25 years later. Pope Adrian granted Charlemagne these fragments for his new palace.
In short: Napoleon was after all a great thief!
not a thief, his heir
@@Simon-.- his brother was a great thief. he stole alot of art for his tiny little kingdom of westphalia.
and maybe because of everything its been through
Honestly when I look back in history, despite the church trying to be fanatic about christianity, it never really became that for kings nor commoners. Despite or perhaps also because of the persecution against their own beliefs.
One wonders why this faith was taken up by the Romans in the first place. All other conversions just seem like an attempt at aligning oneself with Rome. With the riches, the gold, the knowledge and so forth.
@faramund9865 Eh, people tend to get the wild idea that the church was constantly trying to persecute people, but for the vast majority of history this wasn’t the case. People see the crazy exceptions and take them to be the rule.
Thankyou so much
Most welcome!