When I was a teen, I decided one day that I was going to read the encyclopedia from start to finish. My family had a World Book set (this dates me, I know), and I picked up the A volume and sat down to begin. As you might imagine, I didn’t get very far, and remember very little from what I actually read. But I always remembered the very first entry: Aachen.

This city now in Germany was the birthplace of Charlemagne, founder of the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. It was also his capital. Nearly thirty years later, this has stuck with me, along with a desire to visit this alphabetically first entry in the encyclopedia. So when TRT writer Hedy invited me to stay with her in Maastricht, a mere half hour drive from Aachen, I agreed, provided we could take a day and cross the border into Germany to explore the history of Charlemagne.

Aachen is a reasonably sized city at roughly 250,000, and the historic center is just a few blocks. We find parking in a structure about half a mile away, and walk, using the dome of the cathedral as a guide. In the late morning on a Saturday, the center is active, but not overly crowded. We skirt the cathedral and find our first stop, the Centre Charlemagne.

This small museum is a mixture of the personal story of Charlemagne and the history of Aachen, with some more generic exhibits in between (like weaponry or dress). It has some artifacts on display, but more impressive is the selection of multimedia screens, fortunately most having English as an option. These range from stories of some of the nobles in Charlemagne’s court to an exploration of the former palace that stood here.

Charlemagne was born here in Aachen (though some claim he is from Liege in Belgium) in 747, the son of Pepin the Short, founder of the Carolingian dynasty (although Charlemagne would be the first to rule a Carolingian Empire). In 768 he became King of the Franks when his father died, and in 774 he added King of the Lombards when he married the daughter of Lombardian king Desiderius, thus creating the new and larger Carolingian Empire. That empire was assured in 800 when Pope Leo III declared Charlemagne to be the new (holy) Roman Emperor, the first since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.

Centre Charlemagne goes into some of the ruler’s legacy. For more than a millennium, Charlemagne has been held as the standard of a great ruler. While I don’t dispute the fact that he has that legacy, I do question where it came from. Under his rule, which ended in 814 when he would die of a lung disease, Charlemagne’s empire was pretty much in a constant state of war, both against other Christian kingdoms and more nomadic tribes. His conquest of most of Western Europe did spur a sort of cultural and intellectual renaissance, although it is hard to give him credit for that. He was declared a saint, although that seems to have never been official, and instead merely has beatified status. Tales of his being kind or just don’t seem to really follow factual history.

We finish the museum in about an hour and a half, then walk around Aachen’s Rathaus (city hall) to a statue of Charlemagne. He seems to always be portrayed in this style. A crown on his head, he holds a scepter in one hand and an orb in the other, and has a sword at his side.

Of course, the main attraction in Aachen is the cathedral. One of the original twelve UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1978, Aachen Cathedral dates all the way back to Charlemagne himself, having been consecrated in 805. Originally the chapel within his palace, the cathedral is now a standalone building that has hosted the coronations of dozens of German kings and queens.

The portion of the cathedral able to be visited is fairly small, consisting mainly of the ground floor of the central chapel and the surrounding hallways. (The upper floor, where Charlemagne’s throne is located, is only able to be seen with a guided tour.) But what the place lacks in size it more than makes up for with embellishment, especially golden mosaic. This central area is called the Palatine Chapel, and it is worth walking all the way around, and then staring up from the center. The cathedral’s stained glass nave can be seen, but not visited.

While Aachen Cathedral is free to visit, the treasury is not. But if you are interested in Charlemagne, as I am, it is a must-see. The artifacts on display range from religious art to shiny crosses, but the highlight is two reliquaries of Charlemagne himself, one containing his arm bone and the other a piece of his skullcap. It’s a bit morbid, but they are golden and beautiful, and actual pieces of the king.

Charlemagne exploration complete, a brief stroll around the cute streets of the historic center of Aachen nets one last treasure: aachener printen, holiday cookies (mainly gingerbread in flavor profile) made only here. They come in various sizes and shapes, but the basic cookie is the same, or seems to be. A bag for the drive back to Maastricht, and the day in Aachen comes to an end.

If Charlemagne interests you, the chance is that Aachen has already been on your to-visit list. And if you’ve ever attempted to read the encyclopedia from A to Z, it also might have stuck in your mind. Regardless, it makes a lovely day if you find yourself anywhere in the area.

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