Charlemagne
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and from 800 the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire. (wiki)
Connected Sites
| Site | Rationale | Link |
| Aachen Cathedral | He was buried in the Cathedral (814). He also began the construction of its Palatine Chapel around 796. | |
| Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch | He was present at the consecration of the monastery church | |
| Benedictine Convent of St. John | ...was founded around 775, probably on the orders of Charlemagne. (AB Ev.) | |
| Danube Limes | Linz (ID No 13a/b): In 791 Charlemagne and his army passed Linz on a campaign against the Avars. In 799, the Emperor gave St. Martin's Church and its castrum to his brother-in-law Gerold as a fief. | |
| Ferrara | In 774, the Frankish king Charlemagne, after defeating Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, donated the city of Ferrara and its territory to the Holy See. | |
| Florence | Charlemagne conquered Florence in 774 and the city became part of the March of Tuscany. | |
| Longobards in Italy | Brescia, San Salvatore: "The monastery is traditionally considered the place where Desiderata, wife of Charlemagne and daughter of the Lombard King Desiderius, spent her exile after the annulment of her marriage in 771." | |
| Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles | In the St. James Chapel of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, the frescoes show "Charlemagne's Council, which contains actual portraits of some of the most significant figures associated with the Carraresi court (...) and a portrait of Charlemagne himself; this latter shows a clear resemblance to emperor Louis of Hungary, an ally of the Carraresi rulers of Padua. The entire image is, therefore, a clear political statement of the prestige of both the lords of Padua and of the Lupi family." (Nomination file, p. 121) | |
| Ravenna | Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel both uses San Vitale in Ravenna as a partial model and inspiration and incorporates materials taken on Charlemagne's orders from Ravenna . "Charlemagne visited Ravenna three times, the first in 787. In that year he wrote to Pope Hadrian I and requested "mosaic, marbles, and other materials from floors and walls in Rome and Ravenna, for his palace" ... The Chapel of San Vitale makes use of ancient spolia conceivably from Ravenna (Einhard claimed they were from Rome and Ravenna), as well as newly carved materials." Wiki (Einhard was a servant to and wrote a biography of Charlemagne) | |
| Reims | Palais du Tau holds the "Talisman of Charlemagne", buried with him at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 814, and re-discovered when the tomb was opened by Otto III in 1000. The talisman was then preserved in the treasury of the Reims Cathedral. | |
| Rome | The church of Santo Stefano was established by Charlemagne in the 9th century. (Wiki) | |
| Santiago de Compostela | "The "Historia Caroli Magni" tells of how "[a]t the request of Saint James who appears to him in dream, Charlemagne embarks on four wars to wrest Spain from the Saracens. In the first war, he takes his army to Santiago de Compostela and conquers all of Spain. (...) Once the last Saracen leaders are defeated, Charlemagne invests Santiago de Compostela with considerable powers and begins the return to France." | |
| Val d'Orcia | According to tradition, Sant'Antimo Abbey was founded in 781 by Charlemagne in response to a grace received: the emperor and his troops had been spared from the plague that was raging in the region, during his return journey from Rome, where he received from the Pope the bodies of Saints Antimo and Sebastian. (Nomination file, p. 86) The foundation by Charlemagne is almost certainly to be interpreted as a pure medieval legend | |
| Vatican City | the Pope crowned him Imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans") in Saint Peter's Basilica (wiki) - in 800 |
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