Posted on 10/10/2023 7:24:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists believe they have found the site where Emperor Otto I (936-973), known as the Great, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, died.
Otto the Great is regarded by historians as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He earned a reputation as a defender of Christendom as a result of his victory over pagan Hungarian invaders in 955 C.E. He used his self-proclaimed divine right as a ruler and his dealings with bishops to tighten his control over his kingdom and to begin his aggressive expansion into Italy. His son Otto II would succeed him after his death in 973 C.E.
Archaeologists from the Saxony-Anhalt State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology have been excavating the former imperial palace and the rich Benedictine monastery in Memleben, Germany, since 2017.
This year's investigations yielded new findings of extraordinary importance. For the first time, reliable archaeological evidence of the Palatinate of Memleben, the as-yet unlocated place of death of Emperor Otto the Great and his father Heinrich I, was identified in the form of a stone predecessor of Otto II's monastery church. A mysterious foundation in the cloister of the monumental monastery church can possibly be linked to the mention of a subsequent burial of Otto the Great's intestines...
The former Memleben monastery is one of the most important sites on the Romanesque Road. The ruins of the monastery church from the 13th century with its preserved crypt are considered an outstanding building that documents the transition from the late Romanesque to the early Gothic style. It reflects the historical significance of the place: The founder of the Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Otto I, known as the Great, passed away in Memleben in 973, as did his father Heinrich I in 936.
(Excerpt) Read more at arkeonews.net ...
Memleben monastery. In the right part of the picture, the monastery garden, under whose border the predecessor building of the monumental church continues.Photo by Thomas Jäger / State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt
Didn’t he invent the Otto-man? They named an entire empire after him!
This is why I want to rule as emperor from an undisclosed location.
Otto...we miss thee.
“A mysterious foundation in the cloister of the monumental monastery church can possibly be linked to the mention of a subsequent burial of Otto the Great’s intestines...”
They could have at least buried the rest of him too.
I thought the Roman Empire had basically fallen by 600 AD(CE)? Someone help me out here?
His great great great great great (etc) grandson did well for himself.
There were several Roman Empires as I recall. The Holy Roman Empire started after the other ones fizzled out.
“A mysterious foundation in the cloister of the monumental monastery church...”
There may be a second, even more mysterious Foundation at the opposite end of the galaxy.
:)
The Holy Roman Empire was founded after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. Roughly, it comprised what is now Germany and France. The Eastern Roman Empire, a.k.a. Byzantium, didn’t fall until 1453.
I had a history teacher who liked to say that the Holy Roman Empire, was neither ‘holy’, ‘Roman’, nor an ‘empire’
For most of its history, it was a loose configuration of Germanic states, that spent more time on internal power struggles than actual governing.
Poor Charlemagne, he never could catch a break.
>>According to Thietmar von Merseburg’s chronicle from the beginning of the 11th century, the ruler’s entrails were buried the night after his death in Memleben’s St. Mary’s Church (a predecessor of Otto II’s monumental church), and his embalmed body was transported to Magdeburg. An interpretation of the newly discovered building in the monumental church cloister as a sanctuary for the temporary storage and veneration of the ‘relic’ with the entrails of Otto the Great is within the realm of possibility.
Removal of the intestines presumably made the body less smelly to transport.
That’s something that I’ve always thought was pretty neat. That the Roman Empire finally fell just a few decades before the discovery of America.
The Roman Empire was divided by Diocletian, who put an end to the Crisis of the 3rd Century.
The eastern R.E. (in modern times usually called the Byzantine Empire) didn’t finally fall until the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 — a mere 39 years before Columbus set sail into everlasting fame.
Charlemagne had ruled as Emperor of the Romans. The ruins of the Roman Empire are still impressive today, imagine how they must have looked (and how many more of them were around) back then.
The Holy Roman Empire was a loose confederation of the numerous Germanic states, and more or less rooted in the division of Gaul after Charlemagne died (the German side went to Louis the German).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=holy+roman+empire
https://www.germany.travel/en/cities-culture/trier.html
fun sidebars:
https://www.youtube.com/@medievalmadnesss/videos
;^)
This is the HOLY Roman Empire.
As the wags say, it was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire.
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