Last week I mentioned Godfrey of Bouillon and King Arthur as part of a series of statues surrounding the cenotaph of Maximilian I in Austria. I offhandedly asked where the Charlemagne statue was since none of the 28 bronze statues in the Hofkirche were of the first Holy Roman Emperor.
Don't worry. There is a bronze statue of him in Germany.
Aachen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen, Germany, constructed by order of Emperor Charlemagne. The Palatine Chapel is part of the church and is the last remaining piece of Charlemagne's original palace - now long gone. Following Charlemagne's canonization by Antipope Paschal III in 1165, the chapel became a draw for pilgrims. You might get a kick out of this: the chapel is eight-sided. Where have we heard about eight-sided buildings before?
The statue of Charlemagne in Aachen first appeared in 1620 in front of Aachen Town Hall atop the Karlsbrunnen, or Market Fountain. It was removed in 1792 by the French but reinstalled in 1804 where it remained for another 150 years. In 1969, a copy replaced the original, which now resides in the city history museum.
Okay, that's a third of the Nine Worthy statues accounted for. I suddenly am curious what a Glomus mansion playset would look like, with action figure-sized representations of these classic statues. So, join us: find the other statues. Help us: let's all hope they're bronze, too. Go and waste a week or two if you want.
2 comments:
Hah! Pippin
I like your reference to the musical Pippin.
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