.... View of a bronze wolf statue... a relic of the Roman presence in Aachen... he stands guard just inside the entrance of Aachen Cathedral and gives his name to the adjoining main portal, known as "the Wolf's Door"... one of the legends say that the devil agreed to help with the fundraising for the cathedral if he could have the soul of whoever entered first... the towns people decided to trick the devil by placing a wolf in front of the bishop on the day the cathedral officially opened... their game worked, the devil, not looking closely enough, grabbed the wolf’s soul without realizing until after that he had been tricked (note the hole in the wolf's chest)... with lovely stamp of a popular German series of children's books and cute looking first day Wolf postmark... Thanks Dustin a lot!
【ツ】
Aachen Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe; ground was first broken for this spectacular building in 796 AD and it was consecrated in the year 805 AD so it has seen its fair share of history.
The west portal features great bronze doors known as the "Wolf's Doors," which were cast around 800 AD for the original Palatine Chapel. They were based on ancient models and weigh four tons. The modern entrance is through a smaller, more humble doorway to their right.
Stamp:
The School of Magical Animals
(Issued 10-10-2024)
I've been to Aachen a couple of times (3, indeed), first time with a school trip from Spain, and twice in the last year to give a hand to my son, who was studying at the RTWH.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that the first time I was there, a tourist guide (also Spanish, b.t.w.) told us that the bronze statue was something like a gift the city of Rome made to Aachen for the Cathedral, since it was formerly placed in a fountain in Rome, hence the hole in the chest from which water spurted.
Also, the she-wolf indicates the beginning of the original "Way of St James", from the oldest Cathedral in Europe to the place in which, they say, the Apostle is buried