♪♪ Piaton: Aachen Cathedral in Germany and the Palatine Chapel in Sicily are two majestic monuments.

The alliance of power and religion can be seen in every detail of their architecture.

The kings of the Middle Ages set out to conquer new territories in the name of their Christian faith.

At the time, religion was a pillar of their power.

Aachen, also known as Aix la Chapelle, was the capital of Charlemagne's kingdom and was to become the heart of the Holy Roman Empire.

Over the centuries, nearly 30 kings were crowned there.

2,000 kilometers further south in Palermo, Roger II was proclaimed the first Norman king of Sicily.

In order to successfully portray himself as the King of all on a territory where different cultures had already existed side by side, He deployed unprecedented resources.

Each and every detail of these two buildings recounts the sovereign's secrets to assert themselves as political leaders and God's representatives on earth.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ In the 11th century, at the period when the Normans were setting out to conquer new territories, Sicily was considered to be the jewel of the Mediterranean.

Having been under Muslim domination for 200 years, the island was multicultural.

Christians, Byzantine Greeks, Jews, and Muslims lived side by side, and together they made the city prosper.

♪♪ Orlando: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ Piaton: News of this Garden of Eden reached the Normans.

Descended from the Vikings, the Normans were powerful warriors.

Overcrowded on their own territory, they sought fortune throughout Europe.

In exchange for the Christianization of Sicily, the Pope granted them authorization to become lords of Sicily, an unexpected place in the sun.

for this people of the North.

♪♪ The Normans, who were outnumbered, did not chase the Arabs from the island.

On the contrary, they made sure their knowledge in the realms of agriculture and the economy remained in Sicily.

Rough hewn and massive, the Normans architectural style was first and foremost designed with defense in mind.

The conquerors built fortifications all over the island, but it was in Palermo that they chose to settle.

Roger II, who was proclaimed first Norman King of Sicily, had a palace built there in the typical style of a medieval fortress.

The king's private chapel, known as the Palatine Chapel, surpassed by its sheer beauty anything the Normans had built up until then.

Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ Piaton: The architecture of the chapel is the only one of its kind in the world.

Its style combines elements from several different cultures.

A choice of aesthetics that proved to be a brilliant political strategy.

♪♪ ♪♪ 300 years earlier in northern Europe, a major change occurred.

♪♪ Weary of constantly moving around his land, Charlemagne decided to found a capital for his kingdom.

He chose a small town in the middle of the countryside, Aachen.

Today, the city of Aachen is located at the border of three countries -- Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

♪♪ Here, in what is now the heart of our Europe, Charlemagne built an imposing church next to his palace.

♪♪ ♪♪ Muller: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: Like the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, the architecture of Charlemagne's church reflected his vision of power.

The sovereign took his inspiration from imperial Rome to found his own empire.

♪♪ Maintz: [ Speaking in German ] [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ Piaton: Building this eternal monument was a superhuman feat for the inhabitants of Aachen.

Legend has it that they set the devil to work to build it, and the devil requested in exchange the first soul that would pass through its door.

♪♪ Maintz: [ Speaking in German ] [ Bell tolling ] ♪♪ Piaton: The She-Wolf of Aachen is an allusion to the She-Wolf of Rome, the symbol of the ancient city's founding myth.

♪♪ From this new Rome, Charlemagne launched a series of holy wars against the pagans.

He successfully carried out his dream and became the first Western emperor since antiquity.

His Christian empire spread as far as the Mediterranean.

♪♪ [ Waves crashing ] ♪♪ Three centuries later in southern Europe, King Roger II of Sicily was also on a mission to Christianize the population.

♪♪ But his Palatine Chapel was built using a very different strategy from Charlemagne's.

Instead of imposing his faith, King Roger II took inspiration for the church's interior decoration from the sacred art of other cultures.

It was a way of embracing Islamic and Byzantine Greek art and placing them at the service of his reign.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Andaloro: [ Speaking in Italian ] [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Guastella: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ Piaton: The original blend of Christian and Islamic elements in the Palatine Chapel strikes visitors immediately.

The ceiling is the chapel's most famous feature.

Roger II called upon Arab craftsmen to employ the specific technique of Muqarnas.

The painted wood decorations arranged in stalactites were usually used to decorate the cupolas of Arab buildings.

This extraordinary example of the use of Islamic architecture is unique in a Christian church.

♪♪ Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] Piaton: The images recount daily life at the court with its musicians, celebrations, and myths.

Other motifs are explicitly Christian, like this one of Saint George slaying the dragon.

♪♪ ♪♪ Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Orlando: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ Piaton: Roger II's strategy of having different cultures live side by side was unique at the time.

In his northern territories, Charlemagne, on the contrary, was fighting for total Christianization.

He tolerated no other belief.

A single faith was the bedrock of his empire and the Church of Aachen shone out from its center.

♪♪ ♪♪ Inside, the original Byzantine octagon has been preserved to this day.

On entering the octagon, one can immediately sense the perfect harmony that reigns here.

♪♪ All this splendor follows a surprising architectural principle featured in a text written on the chapel walls.

♪♪ It states that divine harmony itself features in the proportions of the church.

♪♪ ♪♪ Kerner: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ Piaton: This promise of salvation is also symbolized by the Barbarossa chandelier.

The crown of light, with its golden towers, represents the New Jerusalem, the city of God, an ideal city described in the apocalypse as sparkling with gold and precious stones and descending from the heavens at the end of time.

♪♪ [ Speaking in German ] Piaton: The church conceals all the secrets of the Christian world.

Each object, each stone is imbued with theological concepts.

[ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: At a height of 31 meters, the chapel's cupola was the highest ever to be built north of the Alps at the time.

Charlemagne took inspiration from the art of distant empires to decorate it.

Muller: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ Piaton: Constantinople had been the center of the Byzantine Empire, the new imperial power since the fall of Rome.

A symbol of wealth and opulence, the city, which is today known as Istanbul, was considered a rival by medieval western sovereigns, including both Charlemagne and Roger II of Sicily.

♪♪ In Palermo, the interior of the Palatine Chapel reveals the luxury of Byzantium.

♪♪ Andaloro: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Andaloro: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ Piaton: The refinement of the muqarnas ceiling is reflected in the floors covered with mosaics and another example of cultural blending.

Only Greek and Arab craftsmen mastered these geometrical forms.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian continues ] Piaton: It is no coincidence that Roger II used porphyry to decorate his chapel.

He was seeking to imitate and even surpass the grandeur of Byzantium.

Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian ] Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: Throughout the centuries, Aachen established itself as the center of the Holy Roman Empire.

♪♪ The aura of the Cathedral and of the 27 kings that were crowned there is based on one single object -- Charlemagne's throne.

It is the source of numerous debates among historians, because nothing proves the emperor actually ever sat on it.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: In Palermo, Roger II's right hand man had an Orthodox church built.

It can be considered to be the reflection of the Palatine Chapel and is called the Church of St.

Mary's of the Admiral.

♪♪ Guastella: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Guastella: [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ [ Speaking in Italian continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: Overriding the church, Roger II and Charlemagne legitimized their earthly powers by referring to diving law.

Eager to ensure sacred protection, they surrounded themselves with relics.

These physical remains of saints, an objects that had belonged to them, became revered objects.

Guastella: [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ Piaton: One of the most remarkable reliquaries of the Palatine Chapel is an ivory encrusted Arab casket.

Dittelbach: [ Speaking in German ] [ Speaking in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: The Cathedral of Aachen houses one of northern Europe's most important treasuries.

Here, two relics play a central role.

Falk: [ Speaking in German ] [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking in German continues ] ♪♪ Piaton: Over the centuries, the Treasury expanded with its precious objects, bearing witness to the grandeur of the Germanic kings.

The number of relics also increased.

Enclosed in finely worked reliquaries are Christ's swaddling cloth and the Virgin's cloak, amongst other relics.

♪♪ Aachen became an important place of pilgrimage, attracting increasing numbers of worshippers.

In order to be able to cater for them, the original church had to be progressively extended.

♪♪ It would take nearly a thousand years for Charlemagne's church to become the Cathedral of Aachen it is today.

Maintz: [ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: The diversity of its architectural styles gives the cathedral its unique appearance.

♪♪ The most impressive part is, without a doubt, the Gothic choir.

It was designed with no buttresses, a veritable technical feat for the 14th century.

♪♪ ♪♪ The thousand meters squared of stained glass floods with light the reliquaries it houses.

One of these reliquaries contains the bones of Charlemagne.

[ Speaking in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Piaton: By displaying their power through architecture and sacred art, Charlemagne and his successors established here in Aachen the symbolic center of Christian Europe.

To this day, the cathedral is the custodian of medieval imperial history.

♪♪ ♪♪ In the architecture of both the Cathedral of Aachen and the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, symbols of power play a major role.

Charlemagne and Roger II of Sicily used these symbols as communication tools, and although they each used their own specific strategies to assert themselves of sovereigns of all, religion gave each king true legitimacy.

Both kings portrayed themselves as the representatives of Christ on earth.

To build their churches, they chose only the noblest materials and the most complex techniques of their era.

Their obsession with grandeur is present in every detail.

A thousand years later, these places of worship and power reveal the devouring ambition of sovereigns who made their mark on history.

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