Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England, is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England. Founded in 597 AD by St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Anglo-Saxons, the cathedral occupies a position of extraordinary significance in the history of English Christianity and of European medieval pilgrimage. The building visitors see today reflects construction across multiple centuries, with the distinctive Bell Harry Tower completed in 1498 marking Canterbury's skyline from across the surrounding medieval city. The cathedral's most powerful historical association is the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 at the orders of King Henry II's knights, an act that horrified medieval Europe and rapidly created one of the continent's most visited pilgrimage sites, immortalised in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The site of Becket's martyrdom in the northwest transept is marked by a modern altar lit by candles, and a worn area of stone floor shows centuries of pilgrims' knees. The medieval stained glass is among the finest in England, with the 12th-century windows in the Trinity Chapel depicting the miracles of St. Thomas Becket. The Trinity Chapel also contains the magnificent tomb of Edward the Black Prince and the bronze effigy tomb of Henry IV and Joan of Navarre. The Great Cloister, rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 14th century, connects the cathedral to the Chapter House and provides one of the most atmospheric covered spaces in the complex. The surrounding Canterbury Cathedral Precincts contain ruins of the medieval priory and peaceful gardens.