Welcome to Aachen!
Aachen is a historically important city, spa, and university center in North Rhine-Westphalia, situated at the "three lands corner" where the borders of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet. Known as Aix-la-Chapelle in French and Aken in Dutch, the city played a prominent role in early Medieval Europe, when it became the favored residence of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor who created the Carolingian Empire in the late 8th and early 9th century and built the city's impressive cathedral, where he is now buried along with a succession of later German rulers, many of whom were also crowned in the city.
Apart from its medieval significance and a wealth of preserved artifacts, Aachen is also known for its springs, which have been attracting visitors since the Ancient Roman times and continue to do so today, with a number of historic baths and hotels sprinkled around the city. Contributing to the city's wealth and prominence is also the technical university, which made Aachen a hub for modern technologies and provides a sizeable student population (over 40,000 of the total 250,000 inhabitants). With all this, Aachen is now a multi-cultural, popular tourist destination.
Historically this spa-town was a prominent city, the place where the German Kings were crowned, and a famously favored residence of Charlemagne who still lies buried in the impressive cathedral he himself had built. The city is packed with historic sights that remind me of those days, including medieval buildings, city gates, and beautiful fountains.
Aachen (French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle, Dutch: Aken) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th-largest city of Germany.
It is the westernmost city in Germany, and borders Belgium and the Netherlands to the west, the Tri-border area. It is located between Maastricht (NL) and Liège (BE) in the west, and Bonn and Cologne, in the east. The Wurm River flows through the city, and together with Mönchengladbach, Aachen is the only larger German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. Aachen is the seat of the City Region Aachen (German: Städteregion Aachen).
Aachen developed from a Roman settlement and spa, subsequently becoming the preferred medieval Imperial residence of Emperor Charlemagne of the Frankish Empire, and, from 936 to 1531, the place where 31 Holy Roman Emperors have crowned Kings of the Germans.
One of Germany's leading institutes of higher education in technology, the RWTH Aachen University (Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule Aachen), is located in the city. Its university hospital Uniklinik RWTH Aachen is Europe's largest single-building hospital. Aachen's industries include science, engineering, and information technology. In 2009, Aachen was ranked eighth among cities in Germany for innovation.
The regional dialect spoken in the city is a Central Franconian, Ripuarian variant with strong Limburgish influences from the dialects in the neighboring Netherlands. As a Rhenish city, Aachen is one of the main centers of carnival celebrations in Germany, along with Cologne, Mainz, and Düsseldorf. The culinary specialty the city is best known for is Aachener Printen, a type of gingerbread.