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Walking to town from the train station. Passing West Gate the only remaining gate of the old city wall.
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Crossing a channeled branch of the Great Stour River.
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Turning left onto Mercery lane shows Christchurch gate (1517) and the towers of Canterbury Cathedral beyond.
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Our hotel adjacent to the gate. Actually older than the gate itself.
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We reserved the only room facing the cathedral court.
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Cathedral seen from our room window.
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Ceiling of the Southwest Porch which enters the cathedral at the nave.
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Canterbury Cathedral built mostly in the 11th and 12th centuries from the soutwest at ground level.
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Completing the circuit ends back at the ornate statuary on the west face.
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Cathedral at night. We could see this all night from our hotel room.
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Within the nave: the font.
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Turning around at the far end of the nave gives the best impression of it's size.
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Looking directly up at this point shows the remakable fan vaulting of the central tower.
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From the same end of the nave, the choir screen and the southwest transept.
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And it's stained glass window.
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In the opposite direction, the northwest transept. Archbishop Thomas Becket was assanated in this transept in 1170.
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The spot where four knights of King Henry II murdered Becket.
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Through the gate in the choir screen, the far end of the cathedral is visible.
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Looking in the opposite direction shows the opposite end of the cathedral at the end of the nave.
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An immensly large choir space was built into the cathedral, required because of it's huge volume.
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Moving along, the view from the far end of the choir.
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Looking right, the southeast transept.
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The choir aisles on both the north and south have remarkable tombs and art.
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Stained glass of 1230 commemorating thomas Becket as a saint.
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Stained glass of the same epoch.
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Modern glass commemorating the freeing of Nazi prisoners.
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Niche painting of the 12th century depicting St. Paul on Malta.
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The choir aisles both end in a set of steps, worn by pilgrims, leading to the Shrine of St. Thomas.
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For centuries pilgrims came to see the shrine which contained a mountain of jewels and precious metals.
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King Henry VIII took took the treasure in 1538. Now just a candle burns.
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The corona at the very far end of the cathedral.
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The ceiling of the corona.
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We walked in a circle around the cathedral. On the north side are many monastic buildings mostly in ruins.
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There was nothing telling us why they were in ruins. But the cathedral did lose some buildings to WWII bombing.
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The maze of walkways on that side took us through this tunnel.
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And past the water tower built in the 11th century soon after the Norman conquest.
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And eventually passing through the Great Cloister.
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The cloister was built in the 14th century based on an earlier layout.
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The chapter house on the left abuts against the northeast transept.
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Chapter house seen through one of the cloister arches.
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View of the far end of the chapter house.
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The southwest porch covered, like the rest of the western facade, with statues. The public entry for walking about the interior of the cathedral.
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A love story of a sort: On either side of the southwest porch of the cathedral are the statues of King Ethelbert and and his Queen, Bertha. They ruled Kent in the sixth century and established Canterbury as the capital. Here they are shown close together rather than on opposite sides of the passageway on the southwest porch.
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Here in modern statues, the Pagan King of Kent, Ethelbert, greets his Christian bride Bertha c560.
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This clocktower was restored as a commemorative to the WWII destruction that leveled most of the town.
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Looking back as we leave town.