Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral is an English cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites.

The cathedral was begun in 1096 and constructed out of flint and mortar and faced with a cream coloured Caen limestone. A Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished to make room for the buildings. The cathedral was completed in 1145 with the Norman tower still seen today topped with a wooden spire covered with lead. Several periods of damage caused rebuilding to the nave and spire but after many years the building was much as it is now, from the final erection of the stone spire in 1480.

The large cloister has over 1,000 bosses including several hundred carved and ornately painted ones. The cathedral is on the lowest part of the Norwich river plain with Mousehold Heath, an area of scrubland, to the north.

Norwich Cathedral has the second largest cloisters, only out sized by Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral close is the largest in England and one of the largest in Europe and has more people living within than any other close. The cathedral spire, measuring at 315 ft is the second tallest in England, despite being partly rebuilt due to being hit by lightning in 1169, just 23 months after completion which led to the building being set on fire. Measuring 461 ft long and, with the transepts, 177 ft wide at completion, Norwich Cathedral was the largest building in East Anglia.

Read more about Norwich Cathedral:  History, Furnishings, Precinct, Gates, Chapter, Choirs, Burials

Famous quotes containing the word cathedral:

    The charm, one might say the genius of memory, is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental: it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chewing a hunk of melon in the dust.
    Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)