32890
The Grade I Listed Peterborough Cathedral, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
It has been the site of church since 655 when one of the first centres of Christianity in central England known simply as Medeshamstede was founded during the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Peada of the Middle Angles.
In 966 a Benedictine Abbey was created out of the former church by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The Abbey survived battles between local folk-hero Hereward the Wake and the Norman invaders, but was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1116. Due to this it was rebuilt into the modern building between 1118-1237 in the Norman style.
The church houses many relics including the arm of St Oswald, two pieces of swaddling clothes which wrapped the baby Jesus, pieces of Jesus' manger, a part of the five loaves which fed the 5,000, a piece of the raiment of St Mary, a piece of Aaron's rod, and relics of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew - to whom the church is dedicated.)
In 1541, following Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries all of the church's relics were lost but the church survived by being selected as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Peterborough. This may have been related to the fact that Henry's former queen, Katherine of Aragon, had been buried there in 1536.
In 1587, the body of Mary, Queen of Scots, was also buried here after her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle, but it was later removed to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I of England.
32890
The Grade I Listed Peterborough Cathedral, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
It has been the site of church since 655 when one of the first centres of Christianity in central England known simply as Medeshamstede was founded during the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Peada of the Middle Angles.
In 966 a Benedictine Abbey was created out of the former church by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The Abbey survived battles between local folk-hero Hereward the Wake and the Norman invaders, but was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1116. Due to this it was rebuilt into the modern building between 1118-1237 in the Norman style.
The church houses many relics including the arm of St Oswald, two pieces of swaddling clothes which wrapped the baby Jesus, pieces of Jesus' manger, a part of the five loaves which fed the 5,000, a piece of the raiment of St Mary, a piece of Aaron's rod, and relics of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew - to whom the church is dedicated.)
In 1541, following Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries all of the church's relics were lost but the church survived by being selected as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Peterborough. This may have been related to the fact that Henry's former queen, Katherine of Aragon, had been buried there in 1536.
In 1587, the body of Mary, Queen of Scots, was also buried here after her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle, but it was later removed to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I of England.