Paderborn, the site of Charlemagne’s 777 assembly, is in modern-day Germany. The city lies in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, near the sources of the Pader River.
In 777, Charlemagne held an imperial assembly and synod at Paderborn during his campaigns against the Saxons. The meeting took place at a newly established Frankish stronghold and helped project Carolingian authority into Saxony. Political submission, military organization, and Christian conversion were closely connected in Charlemagne’s dealings with the region.
Paderborn later became especially important in Charlemagne’s story because he met Pope Leo III there in 799. That meeting helped shape the political circumstances surrounding Charlemagne’s imperial coronation in Rome the following year.
The location can cause confusion because Charlemagne’s realm covered areas now belonging to several countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and parts of central Europe. Paderborn itself, however, is unambiguously in present-day Germany.