Aachen Cathedral "Aachener Dom"

This tonemapped panorama shows the Aachen Cathedral "Aachener Dom" or "Kaiserdom," a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the city center of Aachen, also called "Aix-la-Chapelle", in Germany at the border triangle to Belgium and the Netherlands.

This panorama is photographed from the place called "Münsterplatz" with a view to the Palatine Chapel (the octagon in the center) in German called "Pfalzkapelle" that holds the remains of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) (Karl der Große in German), who died on 28. January 814 in Aachen.

In 2014 Aachen celebrates his year of death, that was 1200 years ago. In German this year is called "Karlsjahr 2014". For this reason two exhibitions „Karls Pfalz – Höfisches Leben und Ort der Macht“ and „Karls Schätze“ are planned in Aachen.

The year 2014 is also the year of the next pilgrimage, from 20.6. until 30.6.2014, where the following four "Great Relics" are shown:
- cloak of the Blessed Virgin,
- swaddling-clothes of the Infant Jesus,
- loin-cloth worn by Christ on the Cross,
- cloth on which lay the head of St. John the Baptist after his beheading.
These relics are only shown once every seven years.

This is also the time where all public construction works on the Cathedral, the place called "Katschhof" and the new building called "Centre Charlemagne" will be finished and all of the scaffoldings (you can see one in the panorama) and hoardings will all be removed. It's very rare that there is no scaffolding attached to the Cathedral.

I think it will also be possible to go up the Cathedral Tower in 2014, that is also a very rare event. Please visit http://www.aachendom.de/index336-677.aspx to get the exact date and view some pictures from the year 2006 at http://www.nocabal.de/~emw/photos/2006-06-sommer/2006-09-10-dom-turmbesteigung/index.html

Make a note of these special events and don't forget to make a hotel reservation on time, because a lot of tourists and pilgrims are expected to join these events especially the pilgrim time.

Peter Braatz, a professional photographer, published the panorama "The "Sanctuarium" - 1 Candela from the Dom" here at WWP in 2004 that shows the interior of the Cathedral:
http://www.worldwidepanorama.org/worldwidepanorama/wwp1204/html/PeterBraatz-562.html

In 2011 I published the panorama "Charles the Great's Sleeping Berth (Kaiser Karls Bettstatt)" here at WWP:
http://worldwidepanorama.org/wwp_rss/go/n7275
Don't forget to visit that place also on your trip to Aachen, because it is a very nice area for walking and hiking.

CU, 2014 in Aachen.

This panorama is dedicated to the unforgotten panorama photographer and skydiver, Pat Swovelin, who has contributed to the WWP for years and served as editor and maintainer for the events of the WWP, passed away on May 19th, 2012, the same day he sent the essay for this event out to the mailing lists.

Links to Aachen Cathedral:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine_Chapel,_Aachen
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/3 (UNESCO World Heritage List)
http://www.aachendom.de/ (official website, only in German)
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Palatine_Chapel.html (drawings and 3D model)

Links to pilgrimage time (Heiligtumsfahrt) 2014:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/aachen-cathedral
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachener_Heiligtumsfahrt (only in German)

Links to Year of Karl (Karlsjahr) 2014:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne
http://www.karldergrosse2014.de/ (exhibition, only in German)
http://www.aachen.de/de/stadt_buerger/oberbuergermeister/karlsjahr_2014.html (only in German)

Links to official sites of Aachen:
http://www.aachen.de (township)
http://www.aachen-tourist.de (tourist information)
http://www.staedteregion-aachen.de (town council cooperative)

Link to the official flyer "Aachen News!" (including dates of 2013 and 2014):
http://www.aachen.de/de/tourismus_stadtinfo/pdf/broschueren/Flyer_Neuigkeiten_net_2012.pdf

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Europe / Germany

Lat: 50° 46' 27.79" N
Long: 6° 5' 1.9" E

Elevation: 155

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

DSLR + Sigma 10mm f/2.8 fisheye, tripod, panorama head, DxO Pro 7, PTGui Pro 9.1.3, Photomatix Pro 4.2.1, Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.0, ImageMagick, UnxUtils, my personal batch droplets (command line tools).