Carolingian Architecture

Carolingian architecture is the building style of the empire of Charlemagne and his successors in the late eighth and ninth centuries, part of a broader revival of learning and culture known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Its masterpiece is the Palatine Chapel at Aachen, begun around 792 as part of Charlemagne's palace complex and consecrated in 805; the chapel survives today as the core of Aachen Cathedral even though the rest of the palace has been lost. Designed by the architect Odo of Metz, the chapel took its inspiration from the domed, octagonal sixth century church of San Vitale in Ravenna, built for the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and consisted of a domed octagonal inner space enclosed by a sixteen sided outer wall. For more than two hundred years after its completion, no building north of the Alps matched the Palatine Chapel's span and height, making it the benchmark against which later Carolingian building was measured.