Aachen is the "Imperial City" of Charlemagne, anchored by the Aachen Cathedral, the first UNESCO World Heritage site in Germany. Its octagonal Palatine Chapel, built around 800 AD, served as the coronation site for 31 German kings over six centuries. Between the Gothic Town Hall built on palace foundations and the steaming neoclassical Elisenbrunnen—a nod to the city's 2,000-year-old Roman spa heritage—Aachen remains a sacred treasury of European history and Carolingian ambition.
