AACHEN, DIOCESE. — In western Germany; it has 1,152,490 Catholics, 504 parishes, with 967 secular priests and 190 regulars. The city itself had, in 1939, 160,200 inhabitants, of whom 144,500 were Catholics.
From a deity, probably named Granus, the place where health-giving springs gush forth took the name Aquae Grani. The use of those springs was never lost. Charlemagne favored A. and built there a magnificent Pfalz (residence) with palace, church and all its dependencies. A medieval town soon developed there, from 813 to 1531 the place of coronation of the Roman-German kings and emperors. In the thirteenth century the city became a free imperial city (Freie Reichsstadt). There the peace of 1668 was concluded, with which the War of Devolution (Raubkrieg) ended, and the other of 1748, with which the War of the Austrian Succession closed. In 1797 A. was incorporated into France, in 1815 it returned to Germany (Prussia). In 1818 the Congress of A. was held there. From 1918 to 1929 the city was occupied by the Belgians; during the last phase of the Second World War, in the winter of 1944-1945, it was almost entirely destroyed.
In 1801, under French rule, A. was erected as a diocese, in place of Cologne, which was then suppressed. But it had only one bishop, Mario Antonio Berdollet (1802-1809). In 1821 the diocese of Cologne was re-established. Given, however, the enormous increase of the population, following the industrialization of the region, in 1930 (Aug. 13) it was again erected as a bishopric, but this time as a suffragan of Cologne.
The greatest glory of A. is its Cathedral, the Marienstift. The central and oldest part consists of Charlemagne's palatine chapel, built from 798 to 804 by Odo of Metz. A grandiose construction, polygonal on the outside, with an octagonal interior, matronea, a dome rich in marbles, in imitation of St. Vitale of Ravenna, but with important variations. The material too was for the most part brought by Charlemagne from Italy. The chapel was joined to the palace by means of a great portico. To the eastern part was added, in the Middle Ages (from as early as 1355), a grandiose Gothic nave, with choir: of the western part there remain standing a Romanesque atrium and the tall modern tower. A whole fantastic ensemble of incomparable effect. Noteworthy too is the town hall, a Gothic palace of the first half of the 14th century.
A second great religious foundation was the imperial Adalbertstift, owed to the generosity of Henry II the Saint, but in 1802 it was secularized by the French.
Special mention also deserves the celebrated "Treasury" of the Cathedral. It is kept in the chapel of the Souls in Purgatory, and contains, among so many precious objects, gifts of Otto III, such as an illuminated evangeliary, a golden altarpiece, an ivory holy-water stoup; the cross with a cameo of Augustus, donated by Lothair III; from the 13th century are the reliquary chest of Charlemagne (1215), and that of Mary (1237). Among the many reliquaries those of Anastasius (a Byzantine work) and of Simeon (a work of a local goldsmith) deserve to be noted; various works of Eastern and Western goldsmithing; fabrics, especially Eastern; sacred vestments of the Middle Ages and the Baroque. In the octagon of the Cathedral, note should be taken of the bronze chandelier, in the form of an enormous crown, the gift of Frederick Barbarossa, and in the choir the celebrated pulpit, the gift of Henry II the Saint, with ivories of Alexandrian provenance. Most famous is the so-called Aachenfahrt, that is, the pilgrimage to A., to venerate there the many relics that had accumulated, during the Middle Ages, in the imperial treasury. From the middle of the 14th century this pilgrimage was celebrated only every seven years, from 10 to 24 July (that is, seven days before and after the anniversary of the dedication of the Marienstift, 17 July). This pilgrimage was considered one of the greatest in Christendom, with very rich indulgences, and drew hundreds of thousands of the faithful to A. The last pilgrimage was that of 1925.
Bibliography8 works
Giuseppe Löw