Aachen Chapel of Hungary

Aachen Chapel of Hungary (Hungarian: Aacheni magyar kápolna; German: Aachener Ungarnkapelle; French: Chapelle Hongroise d'Aix-la-Chapelle) is a side chapel of the Aachen Cathedral (German: Aachener Dom), one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe.

Hungarian pilgrims have shared a bond with Aachen Cathedral and its relics for nearly seven hundreds. Since 1349, every seventh year, the holy relics of Christ's incarnation have drawn throngs of pilgrims — including from Hungary — to the German coronation city of six centuries.

The foundation of the Hungarian Chapel in Aachen was connected to the pilgrimages known as Aachenfahrt or Heiligtumsfahrt, in which Hungarian pilgrims took part in great numbers. Aachen was the third most important pilgrimage site in medieval Europe, next to Rome and Santiago de Compostela. In Germany, the custom of the Aachenfahrt is linked to the veneration of the relics of the Holy Land donated to the Aachen Cathedral by the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne. In Hungary, this tradition, of which we only have certain records from the beginning of the 14th century, was probably introduced by settlers from the Walloon and Rhineland regions. The Aachen Rites soon became attractive to Hungarian believers through the Germans who settled in Hungary.

According to contemporary chronicles, despite the distance of over a thousand and two hundred kilometres, Hungarians were always the most numerous of all nations to participate in the Aachen farewell processions, with some years seeing over five thousand Hungarian pilgrims. The procession of pilgrim groups of hundreds of people - some of them by water, the Danube and the Rhine - lasted several weeks, usually more than a month. They followed the route Vienna - Passau - Regensburg - Nuremberg - Frankfurt - Mainz - Koblenz. On their way to Aachen, the Hungarian pilgrims could also stop in Cologne, where there was a lodging house reserved just for them. Wealthy Hungarians also built beautiful houses around the cathedral, most of which still decorate the old town. In 1804 they were evicted by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, whose favorite residence was Aachen.

Louis I of Hungary's mother Elizabeth of Poland, Queen of Hungary, visited the tomb of Elizabeth of Hungary in Marburg and the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne during her pilgrimage in 1357. Finally, with her large entourage, she made a pilgrimage to Aachen, where she met Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anna von Schweidnitz. During her visit, the Dowager Queen made a rich gift to the shrine in Aachen (some of these Hungarian treasures can still be seen in the treasury of the cathedral).

The lessons and experiences of his mother's pilgrimage encouraged Louis I of Hungary to build a chapel in Aachen to match the cathedral. During the pilgrimage of 1364, he made a large donation to build it and to keep two Hungarian priests. The chapel was completed in 1367 in Gothic style. The foundation charter also included ecclesiastical furnishings, vestments, chalices, altarpieces, candlesticks and missal books, which were also provided by the Hungarian king. He also provided for the income of the chapel by purchasing land in the vicinity of Aachen, the proceeds of which were to be used to maintain the Chapel of Hungary and for the needs of the Hungarian chaplains. The legal relations between the Hungarian dynasty and the City of Aachen were regulated by a donation charter in 1370.The Gothic chapel built on the south side of the cathedral was directly connected to the Carolingian octagon, the octagonal church of Charlemagne. The chapel had altars with the relics of Stephen I of Hungary, Saint Emeric of Hungary and Ladislaus I of Hungary, which must have been built by 1366, because Pope Urban V had already granted privileges to

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).