Imperial Palace Ingelheim

Aula Regia of the Imperial Palace in Ingelheim

The Imperial Palace Ingelheim (German: Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz) is an important Imperial Palace erected in the second half of the 8th century in Germany . It served Emperors and Kings as a residence and place for governance until the 11th century. The palatinate complex is located in the cadastral area of Nieder-Ingelheim, 15 km west of Mainz, in der cadastral section „Im Saal“ at a slope with look-out to the Rhine plains. From the buildings of the Imperial Palace impressive relics above ground are preserved today. The greater part of the complex remains as foundation under ground level and allows it to be the basis for archaeological excavations to reconstruct the entire system of buildings.

Historical studies

Initial studies in the Palatinate area took place middle of the 19th century. In August 1852 Cohausen reported about first smaller excavations. 1888-89 Paul Clemen joined with excavations. The German Association for Art Research started under the direction of Christian Rauch in 1909 with systematic studies that had to be adjusted with the outbreak of the First World War but. Rauch but yet published preliminary reports on excavations, after which a 1931-32 model was made, which was viewed by 1975 in the image of a typical Carolingian palace. In 1960, the excavations were taken under the direction of Walter Sage by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft again. 1963 Hermann Ament led the excavations. In 1965 and 1968/70 further archaeological investigations took place under the direction of Uta Wengenroth-Weimann. Following an overall plan of excavation and reconstruction drawings of Walter Sage, Konrad Weidemann made another model of the imperial palace Ingelheim in 1975. Since 1995 there has again current excavations in the Pfalz region. These studies aim to recapture, descript and date the individual parts of the building and the overall topography and brought quite a few discoveries to light. It could, for example, a gold coin and a belt tongue from the time of Charlemagne, as well as a high medieval warm air heating recovered. In addition, the latest excavation results were used to create last year a new reconstruction model of the Palatinate Ingelheim, have been incorporated into the current findings.