Who owns canterbury cathedral

The assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket made the cathedral one of the top pilgrimage destinations in Europe. The French architect William of Sens took care of its reconstruction, having decided to entirely rebuild the building in the Gothic style. The pilgrimages to the tomb of Becket, which was regarded as a place of healing, brought great prosperity to the city and its cathedral for centuries. In fact, the income from pilgrims largely paid for the subsequent rebuilding of the cathedral and its associated buildings.

The incredibly famous Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, narrates the journey of a group of pilgrims from London to the sanctuary of Thomas Becket. While on his deathbed in , he asked to be buried in the crypt.

The cathedral was seriously damaged by the Dover Straits earthquake. The cloisters were repaired and remodelled. The Pulpitum Screen was also constructed. The importance of the cathedral was reduced due to the abolition of religious orders and the cult of saints. The monastery was dissolved by royal command, and the king removed the prior and the monks. The abbey of St Augustine was closed. The New Foundation of Dean and Chapter was established.

Since the order of bishops was retained following England's break from the Roman Catholic Church, the cathedral remained as the seat of the bishop and has become the seat of the spiritual head of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer became the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury; Reginald Pole was the last Roman Catholic archbishop of Canterbury who held the office during the Counter-Reformation.

It undertook repair and refurbishing, with the Christ Church gate restored. However, the statue of Christ was not replaced until The alteration provided a more symmetrical appearance for the cathedral. Architecture of the Canterbury Cathedral The architecture of the Canterbury Cathedral is the result of the fusion between two architectural styles: the Romanesque style and the Perpendicular Gothic style.

Defined by the completely rounded arches, the Romanesque style was used in the eastern side of the cathedral including the nave and part of the quire. On the other hand, the Perpendicular Gothic style, which is characterised by the slightly pointed arches and pinnacle, was used in the western side that consists of the quire and the Trinity Chapel.

The cathedral was built with Caen stone, a stone mined in France, which gives the building a creamy-yellowish colour. A large staircase unites the eastern and western side of the church. Find the full issue here , including:. Visitors and pilgrims enter the cathedral precincts via Christ Church Gate, through a pair of huge 17th-century oak gates, and under the watchful eyes of stone gargoyles and angels. Sharp-eyed visitors may spot a small, naked stone hermaphrodite, located beneath a large carving of the Tudor rose.

Once inside the gate, the south-west side of the cathedral fills your vision; today it is bathed in bright sunshine. Inside, though, the thick stone walls, transported from quarries in and around the town of Caen in Normandy, offer little warmth. Subdued chatter carries up to the 82ft-high vaulted ceiling, designed by 14th-century master mason Henry Yevele.

Worn down by the millions of pilgrims and visitors who have climbed them over the past 1, years, even the stone steps have a story to tell. Work here began in using designs by Abbot Suger, the earliest patron of the Gothic architectural style.

Rather than going on crusade — a popular way of absolving sins in the late 11th century — people instead put their efforts into constructing a house of God. Building massive stone structures required huge amounts of people power. Those employed ranged from unskilled labourers to a host of master craftsmen and skilled workmen.

Many workers travelled from cathedral to cathedral, sharing their expertise on building projects throughout Europe. He was called to work on Canterbury Cathedral in , and given the task of rebuilding and extending the east end after a fire in William did not live to see his work completed — he was seriously injured after falling from a scaffold and was forced to return to France where he later died.

But his plans were followed by his successor, the architect and stonemason William the Englishman. They were also used to mark how and where specific stone blocks were to be used. Medieval cathedrals were never really completely finished. Construction and redevelopment projects were, more often than not, ongoing. The tools that a master mason had to work with were limited — hammers, chisels, crude measuring devised, wooden scaffolding etc.

However, for all these limitations, the professional skills shown at Canterbury are best seen in the central tower, known as the Bell Harry Tower. The ceiling, where men would have worked on their backs on top of less than stable scaffolding, is both highly decorative yet functional. At the eastern end of the cathedral is a massive stained glass window that shows stories from the Bible.

Beneath it is the patriarchal chair cathedra , made of Purbeck marble, on which since the 12th Century all archbishops have been enthroned. It was originally thought that this chair was the one used by St. Augustine as his cathedra, but it is now accepted that the chair came about during the time when the choir was reconstructed.

It was in the vicinity of the cathedra that the scalp of Thomas Becket was displayed.