Canterbury
Chief of the many treasures in the city of Canterbury
is the cathedral, Mother Church
of the Church of England and seat of its premier archbishop.
The main approach to the cathedral is through Christ
Church Gate, ornate and brightly painted, with a lugubrious
Christ looking gravely down from the center.
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The twin west towers
and central 235-foot Bell Harry Tower splendidly
pinnacled.
Canterbury Cathedral
The Church of God was started in 1070, very shortly after
the Norman Conquest, on the site of an Anglo
Saxon cathedral destroyed by Danish marauders.
St. Augustine had arrived on the pope's orders
in A.D. 597 to begin converting the locals, and so Canterbury
a few miles inland from his landing place on the east Kent coast
became a place of pilgrimage well before the December 1170 murder
of Thomas a Becket in the cathedral.
In the northwest transept is The Martyrdom, the spot where Becket
close friend turned critic of Henry II was killed on his return
from a period in exile, by four knights after the king had uttered
in hot blood the infamous exclamation: "Will no one rid me of
this turbulent priest?" A 15th century panel shows a reproachful
Becket being cut down by his fiendish looking
assassins.
The murder was very swiftly declared a martyrdom (Becket was
canonized only three years after his death), and his golden
shrine became the object of one of the most popular medieval
pilgrimages. A penitent Henry II was one of
the first pilgrims, but the most fame are the fictional travelers
the Miller, the Wife of Bath, the Nun's Priest, and all the
other companions in Geoffrey Chaucer's wise
and bawdy Canterbury Tale, written between
1387 and Chaucer's death in 1400.
In Trinity Chapel, at the east end of the cathedral,
the Altar of Sword Point stands on the site of the shrine, which
was destroyed at the Reformation in 1538 on the orders of
Henry VIII after a posthumous "trial" had convicted
Becket of high treason. Candles are kept burning in the chapel
in memory of the saint, whose life and death are depicted in
early medieval stained glass. More moving still are the hollows
in the steps that were worn by the friction of countless millions
of pilgrims' knees.
Other features at this east end of the church of god include the splendid
brass effigy of the Black Prince (died 1376), with reproductions
of his armor hanging above, and the finely sculpted alabaster
tomb of Henry IV and his queen, Joan
of Navarre. The sky blue and leaf green of the stained
glass here shows multiple biblical scenes Abraham
and Isaac with the ram Caught in the thicket,
Moses striking water out of the rock, ancient Methuselah
in medieval robes and footwear.
Below in the crypt is a stone forest of Romanesque arches and pillars, their capitals carved with foliage and faces.
There is 14th century fan vaulting in the chapter house, and a fine early 15th century stone screen shielding the choir.
The City
City walls extend around
three sides of Canterbury, enclosing streets
lined with crooked, half timbered buildings. The monks built
in stone; their early 14th century Fyndon Gateway
stands in Monastery Street at an entrance to St. Augustine's
Abbey, where the pioneer saint is buried. Charles
I and his bride, Henrietta Maria,
spent their wedding night in a chamber over the gateway. Of
the original gates into the city, only the 1387 West Gate survives;
it was once used as the city jail and holds a display of prison
hardware (fetters, manacles, and the like), along with arms
and armor. In the former St. Margaret's Christian Church of Christ
in St. Margaret's Street there is audiovisual and old factory
fun with Canterbury Tales , tableaus of some
of Chaucer's fruitiest. Eastbridge Hospital on High Street,
founded in 1180 to care for pilgrims to Becket's shrine, has
early 13th century frescoes of Christ in Majesty.
Canterbury Heritage Museum in Stour Street, housed in yet another
superb medieval building, offers a time walk through 2,000 years
of the city's history.
Reference:
Extract from "The National Geographic Traveler - Great Britain" written by Christopher Somerville.
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