buildings are not easy to identify because of the lack of detailed enough written accounts. Charlemagne's and his family's apartments seem to have been located in the north-eastern part of the palace complex; his room may have been on the second floor. Some of the servants of the palace must have lived in the western part, and some in the city. The Emperor is said to have owned a library but its exact location is hard to assess. The palace also housed other areas dedicated to artistic creation: a scriptorium that saw the writing of several precious manuscripts (Drogo Sacramentary, Godescalc Evangelistary…), a goldsmith workshop and an ivory workshop. There was also a mint that was still operational in the 13th century. The palace also housed the literary activities of the Palace Academy. This circle of scholars did not gather in a definite building: Charlemagne liked to listen to poems while he was swimming and eating. The Palace school provided education to the ruler's children and the "nourished ones" (nutriti in Latin), aristocrat sons that were to serve the king. Outside of the palace complex were also a gynaeceum, barracks, a hospice, a hunting park and a menagerie in which lived the elephant Abul-Abbas, given by Baghdad Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Ermoldus Nigellus describes the place in his Poems on Louis the Pious (first half of the 9th century). The place was frequented everyday by crowds of people: courtiers, scholars, aristocrats, merchants but also beggars and poor people that came to ask for charity. Internal affairs were the task of officers such as butler, le seneschal, the chamberman. Symbolic interpretation of the Palace Roman legacy and Byzantine model The palace borrows several elements of Roman civilization. The Aula Palatina follows a basilical plan. Basilicas in ancient times were public buildings where the city's affairs were discussed. The chapel follows models from ancient Rome: grids exhibit antique decorations (acanthus) and columns are topped by Corinthian capitals. The Emperor was buried in the Palatine Chapel within a 2nd-century marble sarcophagus decorated with a depiction of the abduction of Proserpina. Scholars of Charlemagne's time nicknamed Aachen «the Second Rome». Charlemagne wished to compete with another Emperor of his time: Basileus of Constantinople. The cupola and mosaics of the chapel are Byzantine elements. The plan itself is inspired by the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, built by Justinian I in the 6th century. Other