Byzantine architecture was much admired in court circles, and the desire to imitate the earlier periods of Græco-Roman art led to a systematic plundering of the ancient buildings in the Italian peninsula, from which all sorts of architectural fragments, great and small, were carried across the Alps, to be incorporated, generally without much sense of proportion or fitness, in the newly constructed edifices. The most interesting example of this revived Byzantine architecture is the Emperor’s own chapel at Aix, which still serves as a nave in the existing church. Workmen from all quarters of the civilized world were sent for to engage in its construction; marbles, sculpture, and mosaics were brought from Italy, chiefly from Ravenna. Eighteen years elapsed before the church was completed, and it was consecrated with imposing ceremonial by Leo III, on January 1, 805. It is a copy of the well-known church of St. Vitalis in Ravenna. Around an octagonal center, which measures fourteen and a half meters, there are galleries in two stories, to which access is given by turrets containing winding staircases. The Emperor’s contemporaries were not conscious of the mistakes in the execution of this copy of a famous Byzantine model, and the chapel of Aix was spoken of by Einhard as admirable and of supreme beauty. It was followed by others in the same style, one of which, at Germain-des-Près, still preserves, despite restoration, distinct traces of the original design. The age was remarkable, also, for the extension and building of monastic foundations. These buildings, as compared with the later monastic structures, followed a simple plan, with the church edifice forming the center of the complex. Around the square cloister were placed the common room, the school, the library, the refectory, and the dormitory. Near by were the abbot’s home, the guest chamber, and the infirmary. An idea of the extent of these buildings may be had from the dimensions of a well-known French abbey, St. Wandrile, where the refectory and the dormitory measure 208 feet long by 27 feet wide. As to secular architecture, it is represented solely by the imperial palaces at Nymwegen, Ingelheim, and Aix.