Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
The Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew
The West Front
The first abbey was built in Peterborough around 655AD, this was destroyed by a viking attack in 870AD. The Benedictines built a monastery on the site a hundred years later, the present building was begun in 1118 after the previous monastery was destroyed by fire two years earlier. The architecture is mainly Norman, along with Durham and Ely Cathedrals, it is one of the most important 12th-century buildings in England.
During the reformation of the monasteries the Benedictine monks where removed from Peterborough and the Abbey church was selected as the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Peterborough by Henry VIII in 1541.
Peterborough Cathedral is best known for its imposing Early English Gothic West Front which, with its three enormous arches, is without architectural precedent and with no direct successor. The appearance is slightly asymmetrical, as one of the two towers that rise from behind the façade was never completed.
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
The Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew
The West Front
The first abbey was built in Peterborough around 655AD, this was destroyed by a viking attack in 870AD. The Benedictines built a monastery on the site a hundred years later, the present building was begun in 1118 after the previous monastery was destroyed by fire two years earlier. The architecture is mainly Norman, along with Durham and Ely Cathedrals, it is one of the most important 12th-century buildings in England.
During the reformation of the monasteries the Benedictine monks where removed from Peterborough and the Abbey church was selected as the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Peterborough by Henry VIII in 1541.
Peterborough Cathedral is best known for its imposing Early English Gothic West Front which, with its three enormous arches, is without architectural precedent and with no direct successor. The appearance is slightly asymmetrical, as one of the two towers that rise from behind the façade was never completed.