Friday 27 May 2011

Pictures of Canterbury Cathedral

Because I was thinking about Canterbury, here are some more-or-less randomly-chosen pictures of my favourite cathedral.

This is its most famous part, the site of Thomas Becket's shrine. This was the destination of many thousands of medieval travellers, including but not limited to Chaucer's pilgrims, St Eysteinn, and an Icelander named Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson who presented the tusk of a narwahl at Thomas' shrine to thank the saint for a good catch. (Part of me really hopes they still have a narwahl tusk in a cupboard somewhere at Canterbury). The shrine was, of course, destroyed at the Reformation, so the site is marked by the candle in the bottom-left corner.



From the nave...


Windows...

The ceiling of the nave.

Sunlight on some saints.

Medieval glass.

Reflections of medieval glass.

Link For the Oxford theme of this blog - here's the founder of All Souls College, Archbishop Henry Chicele, holding the (very recognisable!) frontage of his college. It's from his gorgeously-coloured tomb:

More medieval glass:

Medieval wall-painting, traces thereof:


This is from St Anselm's Chapel, looking into the body of the cathedral:

Some archangels:

Photobucket

Photobucket

And to the outside - this is the ruins of the medieval abbey of Christ Church, where the monks lived who served the cathedral. Thanks, Henry VIII!


Cloisters:



And to finish here's, well, the photographer herself, in St Anselm's chapel:


For more, see Canterbury by Candlelight and The Stained Glass of Canterbury.

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