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Charlemagne’s shrine at Aachen Cathedral
Charlemagne died in Aachen on January 28, 814. He was buried that same day in “his” Church of St. Mary, the predecessor of today’s cathedral.
He was presumably first buried in a Roman marble sarcophagus dating from the 3rd century AD (pictured here).
The relief depicts the ancient myth of Proserpina. The myth was traditionally connected with death, the changing seasons, and the return of life. Using it as a tomb for the great emperor shows the Carolingian fascination with ancient Rome and its imperial heritage.
Following some medieval power drama — Charlemagne’s canonization by an antipope at the initiative of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa — his grandson, Frederick II, transferred Charlemagne’s remains into the magnificent gilded Shrine of Charlemagne in 1215.
The other shrine at the front of the Gothic choir of the cathedral is the Shrine of the Virgin Mary, containing relics connected with Aachen’s medieval pilgrimages.
Křivoklát Castle is one of the oldest and most important medieval royal castles in the Czech Republic.
Its origins go back to the 12th century, when it was used as a hunting lodge for Bohemian princes. Understandable when you look at the magnificent forests surrounding the castle.
Then in the 13th century, the “Iron King” Přemysl Ottokar II, who famously pushed the borders of Bohemia deep into today’s Austria and beyond, further developed the site into a massive royal fortress and center.
Even the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV of the House of Luxembourg was held at the castle under house arrest as a child following medieval royal power struggles.
King Vladislaus II (Jagiellon) rebuilt and expanded the castle in the late 1470s, turning it into a grand Late Gothic royal residence.
In the 9th century Charlemagne established a bishopric in Halberstadt, Saxony, to foster Christianity there.
Today, there is a beautiful Gothic cathedral here, and also the biggest medieval cathedral treasury outside the Vatican, including a wonderful exhibition about medieval bird worlds I visited.
“Masters of the skies” — as symbols of power, strength, self-sacrifice, love and beauty, birds appear frequently in the liturgical vestments, pictorial tapestries and embroidered hangings.
Different kinds of birds symbolized different parts of medieval life and culture and Christian imagery.
The eagle, for example, was prized as an exceptionally valuable hunting bird, represented royal (one-headed eagle) and imperial (two-headed eagle) rulership, and was regarded as the winged Word of God.
The University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford
A church with over a thousand years of history.
By the early 13th century, before Oxford University had its own buildings, St. Mary’s was the central meeting place where scholars and students gathered for lectures, examinations, and religious services and sermons, which were an important part of medieval university life.
Above the altar is a 17th-century painting of the Virgin and Child, painted by the French Baroque painter Simon Vouet and his studio. Vouet spent many years in Italy before returning to France, where he became a prominent court painter under Louis XIII. The painting is on loan from the famous Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Landsknechts guarding Maximilian’s funeral procession in January 1519. I took the pictures at Wels Castle, in the very rooms where Emperor Maximilian I died, behind the bay window in the picture.
Landsknechts wearing their colorful fashion, a last honor to the great emperor.
The other picture I took at Nuremberg Castle.
When Emperor Maximilian formed Landsknecht companies in 1480s, he allowed them to dress however they wanted, ignoring strict sumptuary laws at the time that restricted clothing by social rank.
His reasoning was that because their lives were "brutish and short", they should be allowed to have little fun and pride.
This led to Landsknecht mercenaries dressing as flamboyantly as possible, taking full advantage of this exemption, giving us these amazing warrior aesthetics!
To give some more context.
From the late Middle Ages into the 18th century, strict sumptuary laws were in effect in the Holy Roman Empire. These laws were meant to keep social classes visually distinct by limiting who could wear certain clothes. The prohibitions included banning certain fabrics and even specific fashion styles.
Non-nobles would generally be banned from wearing silk, velvet, gold, silver and pearls; they were also forbidden flamboyant fashion styles like extreme slashing, huge puffs and oversized feathered hats.
The laws existed because, contrary to modern stereotypes about the period, there were a lot of wealthy commoners at the time (merchants, successful artisans, wealthy peasants etc.) who could technically afford the same luxurious clothes and fabrics as nobles. In order to distinguish the social ranks and enforce hierarchy, laws were enacted that banned or limited specific types of clothes to most social classes, so that the nobles would continue to stand out, and hierarchy among classes would be visually recognized.
The first city-level "Kleiderordnungen" (clothing ordinances) appeared from the 13-14th centuries onward, and by 15th century they were becoming common all over Holy Roman Empire, differing slightly from city to city. In 1530 the Diet of Augsburg issued imperial dress regulations.
However Landsknecht mercenaries were given a formal exemption at Diet of Augsburg in 1503 and were allowed to "dress as they see fit".
Landsknechts took full advantage of that and deliberately dressed as flamboyantly as they could, wearing colorful, slashed, and puffed clothing. The ones who could afford it wore the finest materials like silk and gold chains. The look was deliberately ostentatious to signal their status.
A Landsknecht mercenary of lowly origin could suddenly dress in better fabrics and wore more flamboyant clothes than wealthy merchants, having the same fashion privileges as the most powerful nobles. So there was definitely a lot of pride involved in dressing like this and showing off.
One could image how impressionable youths at the time saw Landsknechts dressed like this and wanted to join them. In this way, you can see how Emperor Maximilian giving them this exemption was a way to increase recruitment and promote mercenary lifestyle, at the time when he badly needed pike infantry of his own to counter the Swiss pikemen.
There were also some practical reasons for why Landsknecht clothing looked the way it did. Late medieval civilian clothing was often tight and restrictive. Slashing the outer fabric (especially sleeves, shoulders and hose) let the garment expand and move more freely when marching or fighting with a long pike. Silk was preferred because it didn't stick in wounds as much as linen.
At the time, uniform clothes for soldiers did not exist yet and while on campaign, Landsknechts often had to use whatever cloth they could get to repair their damaged garments. The deliberate slashing style made it easy to insert or display a contrasting lining or patch without needing skilled tailoring.
So the iconic Landsknecht fashion was a mix of being given the privilege to wear what they wanted and some practical reasons.
It was a fashion befitting of a warrior lifestyle!
Interesting part of 16th century diplomacy — the painting Stag Hunt of Elector John Frederick by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1544), Art History Museum Vienna.
This wonderful painting shows the town of Torgau on the River Elbe (today’s Saxony, Germany) with Hartenfels Castle, and includes Emperor Charles V, Elector Palatine Frederick II, Elector John Frederick of Saxony (all three left in the painting), and Duke Philip I of Brunswick.
It’s just that this hunt never actually took place, and the depicted guests never even came near Torgau around that time.
This painting belongs to a series of large-scale, bird’s-eye hunt scenes made in the Cranach workshop in the 1540s, which were meant as diplomatic gestures, promoting goodwill between the depicted hunters. Shortly before the First Schmalkaldic War broke out anyway.
In this war, Emperor Charles V and his (mostly) Catholic allies fought against the Schmalkaldic League, a military alliance of Lutheran princes and cities founded in 1531 and led by the very John Frederick I of Saxony who commissioned the painting, and Philip I of Hesse.
And so the painting I saw in Vienna doesn’t really depict a real hunting day of the princes of that era. It was meant as a diplomatic gesture in tense times.
And of course, it also portrays John Frederick I of Saxony as a great hunter and capable ruler.
With no social media in the 16th century 😉 princes commissioned paintings by artists such as Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein, or Albrecht Dürer to send a message.
Trenčín Castle (today’s Slovakia) — an 11th-century royal borderland stronghold that survived even the Mongol invasion in 1241.
The castle continued to be expanded by later owners, including King Louis of Anjou, Queen Barbara of Celje, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, and the Zápolya and Illésházy families.
By the mid-16th century, with its extensive artillery fortifications, it was one of Europe’s largest castles.
I keep coming back to the colorful medieval frescoes.
This time: beautiful original early 13th-century Romanesque frescoes rediscovered during restoration in 1967 on the north wall and around the triumphal arch of a small, not really famous church in Merano, South Tyrol (northern Italy).
They show quite strong Byzantine influences (possibly painted by an artist from Venice or someone familiar with Byzantine painting) and depict scenes from the life of Mary, including a rare Dormitio Mariae — the death of Mary. It’s actually one of the earliest and most Byzantine-inspired cycles of Mary’s death in Romanesque wall painting in the West.
The Gothic frescoes on the exterior walls from the late 14th century show strong Giotto influences and depict saints, Archangel Michael, a Crucifixion, and St. Nicholas (Merano’s patron saint) with St. Erasmus.
Beneath the church's Gothic choir, there is the tomb of Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria — the younger brother of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 — and his wife Berta Burg.
Maybe not the most famous church in not the most famous city, yet full of wonderful medieval fresco aesthetics.
Churburg Castle, South Tyrol (northern Italy).
Built in the 1250s by Prince-Bishop Heinrich von Montfort of Chur as a stronghold against the powerful and rebellious Lords of Matsch. Yet roughly 40 years later, the castle had passed into the hands of that very same Matsch family anyway.
Following the extinction of the male Matsch family line in the early 16th century, ownership passed to the Trapp family (later Counts of Trapp), who have owned and lived in the castle ever since.
The castle survived medieval power struggles and wars. Only one of its defensive towers was destroyed as a consequence of feuds between branches of the family…
🏰🇩🇪Burg Eltz, Wierschem, Germany
Construction of this castle was started in the 12th century by a branch of the German House of Eltz, who still retain ownership to this day.
This castle along with Bürresheim Castle and Lissingen Castle are the only castles on the Eifel region which have never been destroyed!
This is both a medieval burg (fortified castle) and also a Schloss (palace, manor).
