Aachen Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen, western Germany, and the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe and was constructed by order of the emperor Charlemagne, who was buried there after his death in 814. For 595 years, from 936 to 1531, the Palatine Chapel, heart of the cathedral, was the church of coronation for thirty-one German kings and twelve queens. The church has been the mother church of the Diocese of Aachen since 1802.