Canterbury, city and district, Kent,
SE England, on the Stour River. Tourism, services, and retail are the city's
main industries. There is also some light manufacturing. Canterbury is
famous as the long-time spiritual center of England. In 597, St. Augustine went to England from Rome to
convert the island peoples to Christianity. He founded an abbey at
Canterbury and became the first archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all
England. The early cathedral was burned and rebuilt several times. After the
murder (1170) of Thomas à
Becket and the penance of Henry II, Canterbury became famous
throughout Europe as the object of pilgrimage, and the Canterbury
Tales of Chaucer relate the
stories told by a fictional group of pilgrims. The present cathedral was
begun under Archbishop Lanfranc, the first Norman archbishop. Constructed
from 1070 to 1180 and from 1379 to 1503, it is a magnificent structure, its
architecture embodying the styles of several periods and various architects.
Noteworthy are the 15th-century tower (235 ft/72 m high); the long
transepts; the screen separating the raised choir from the Perpendicular
nave; the east chapel (called the Corona or Becket's Crown), which contains
the marble chair in which the archbishops are enthroned; Trinity Chapel,
which held the shrine of St. Thomas until 1538, when Henry VIII ordered it
destroyed and the accumulated wealth confiscated; the chapel in which French
Protestants worshiped in the 16th cent. and where services are still held in
French; the northwestern transept (where a stone slab commemorates the exact
site of Thomas à Becket's murder); and the tombs of Henry IV and
Edward the Black Prince. During World War II the cathedral was the object of
severe German reprisal raids (June, 1942), which destroyed the library and
many other surrounding buildings; the cathedral itself received no direct
damage. The city of Canterbury is also of great historical interest, with a
14th-century gate and remains of the old city walls; St. Martin's Church
(established before St. Augustine's arrival and known as the Mother Church
of England); the old pilgrims' hostel called the Hospital of St. Thomas; and
several old inns. Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury and
educated at King's School there before going to Cambridge. Other schools are
the Univ. of Kent at Canterbury, and theological, art, and teacher-training
colleges.
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