The Tomb of Charlemagne

Charles the Great, or, as the French call him, Charlemagne (a corruption of Carolus Magnus), built a splendid palace for himself at Aix-la-Chapelle in Prussia; also a chapel on the site of the present cathedral, and under the chapel a tomb for himself.

His body was placed in a sitting position in the tomb on his death, in the year 814.

Nearly two hundred years afterward, in 1001, the emperor, Otho III., had the vault opened; and it is said that the body of the great emperor was found in a wonderful state of preservation, seated on a marble throne, dressed in imperial robes, with his crown on his head, his sword by his side, the Gospels lying open on his lap, and his sceptre in his hand.

A large picture, representing Otho and his nobles gazing on the dead emperor, is painted on the walls of the great room of the town-hall at Aix-la-Chapelle. In the year 1165 the Emperor Barbarossa had the vault again opened; and in 1215 Frederick II. took the remains from the vault, and put them in a casket of gold and silver, in which they are still kept in the treasury of the cathedral.

The marble throne on which the dead emperor sat for three hundred and fifty years is still to be seen in the cathedral. It was used as a throne at the coronation of the German emperors until 1558, after which and other relics found with the body are preserved in Vienna.