Canterbury Cathedral - the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury - represents nearly a thousand years of accumulated sacred architecture in the county of Kent in southeastern England, and its complex architectural history reflects both the development of English Gothic and the dramatic events of English Christian history.
A cathedral church has stood at Canterbury since Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, arrived in 597 CE and established Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons - fulfilling in England the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19. The present building's foundational Romanesque structure dates to Archbishop Lanfranc's rebuilding after the Norman Conquest (1070) and the later expansion under Prior Ernulf and Conrad in the early 12th century. What remains of this Romanesque crypt - the largest Norman crypt in England - gives a sense of the Romanesque solidity from which the Gothic superstructure would grow.
The decisive event in the cathedral's history and its transformation into a major pilgrimage site was the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in the northwest transept on December 29, 1170, by knights acting on the (possibly misunderstood) wishes of King Henry II. Becket's martyrdom - echoing the testimony of the souls 'under the altar' in Revelation 6:9-10 and the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7:54-60 - transformed Canterbury overnight into one of the holiest sites in Christendom. Pilgrims came from across Europe to pray at the site of the martyrdom and, after his canonization in 1173, at his shrine in the newly constructed Trinity Chapel.
The Trinity Chapel, built to receive Becket's remains between 1175 and 1184, was designed by the French master William of Sens and completed by William the Englishman after the former's accidental fall. It is one of the earliest examples of the Gothic style in England - the so-called Early English Gothic - characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the slender columns of Purbeck marble that create a luminous, upward-reaching interior. The vertical movement of the architecture embodies the psalm of pilgrimage: 'Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage' (Psalm 84:5).
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in the 1380s-1390s, made the pilgrimage to Canterbury the frame narrative for one of the masterpieces of English literature, cementing the cathedral's role as a symbolic center of English Christian culture - a role it has never entirely relinquished.
The cathedral was damaged during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, when Becket's shrine was destroyed and his remains removed. It survived the English Civil War relatively intact and was extensively restored in the 19th century. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 as part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site.
Visitors to Canterbury Cathedral can tour the crypt, the Trinity Chapel (where the site of Becket's shrine is still marked), the cloisters, and the Chapter House. The cathedral is an active place of worship and a working mother church, open daily to visitors.