The Church of St. James is a city church in Aachen. It is under the patronage of the Apostle James the Elder and is located near the city center. As St. James' Church, it is the first stop on the Way of St. James from Aachen Cathedral to Santiago de Compostela.
Coming from Aachen Cathedral, St. James was the first church in which the pilgrims prayed before continuing their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela on the so-called "Niederstrasse" via Liège, Paris and Tours. Located at the highest point of medieval Aachen, St. James' Square was a fork in the road that led pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela either via a detour to the relics of St. Servatius in Maastricht or straight through the medieval St. James' Gate.
The old, very small church of St. James was first mentioned around 1165, and documented in 1215. Medieval pilgrims believed that it had been founded by Charlemagne himself: after returning from liberating St. James's tomb, he founded a chapel for the apostle here. Because of this legend, St. James was considered by pilgrims to be the first German church dedicated to St. James. Until 1815, St. James was also responsible for the Catholic population of Vaals, where it used funds from the Aachen Marienstift to support the construction and operation of the local St. Paulus-Kerk as its branch church, and until 1951 for the neighboring village of Vaalserquartier.