Aachen Cathedral Treasury
The associated sheath probably dates to the eleventh century and bears an Old English inscription, reading BRHTZIGE MEC FECID (Brythsige made me).
[2] The second section contains objects connected to the liturgy, including the Cross of Lothair (still used today on special occasions), the Aachen Altar, the Carolingian Treasury Gospels, a masterpiece of medieval illumination.
Artworks which were used at Aachen at the coronations of the Holy Roman Emperor between 936 and 1531 form a third thematic category, including the masterfully produced ivory situla,[3] a vessel for Holy water made in Trier around the year 1000 and decorated with rich reliefs, as well as the Ottonian Liuthar Gospels which are exemplary of their period.
Items from the rich textile collection of the treasury are in constant rotation in the basement, with the coronation cloak, the Cappa Leonis (c. 1520), falsely named after Pope Leo III in the centre.
"Since I have seen every royal marvel, [I know that] no-one living has seen a more marvellous thing," wrote Albrecht Dürer in his travel diary, when he visited Aachen in 1520 on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Charles V. By some miracle, the unique collection, the most important north of the Alps, has survived intact in the cathedral and its treasury to this day.
In August of that year the treasure was taken to the Collegium Liborianum, the Capuchin monastery in Paderborn, where the three items of Imperial Regalia hitherto in the possession of the xathedral college (the Carolingian Coronation Gospels, the Sabre of Charlemagne and St. Stephen's Purse were separated and taken to Vienna.
On Easter Monday 1945, the young vicar Erich Stephany, accompanied by the American art protection officer Walker Hancock, set out for Siegen, to inspect the six boxes of stored treasure.
The collection was only returned on 26 May thanks to Hancock, who prevented their transfer to Marburg, loaded the treasure, copies of the Imperial Regalia, and the wooden doors of St Maria in a lorry without authorisation and transported them to Aachen and Cologne.
In 1975, on account of the significance of the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development decided to erect a Test Bunker for the Protection of Artefacts.
Because only a short journey could guarantee a safe transfer in an emergency, the cathedral chapter decided to build a new treasury on the west side of the cloisters in the immediate proximity of the bunker.
