483 – Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England

Cards no 483 - Laura 

Canterbury Cathedral – a WHS 

Country Card Sent From: Great Britain 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Canterbury 

Date Received: 6th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 227 miles 

Time Taken: 1 day 

This card was a direct swap which I asked Laura for so as to get one of the Canterbury WHS. She kindly obliged with this lovely card.

Canterbury - the World Heritage Site 

Canterbury, in Kent, has been the seat of the spiritual head of the Church of England for almost five centuries. St Martin's Church, St Augustine's Abbey and the cathedral are directly and tangibly associated with the history of the introduction of Christianity to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The influence of the Benedictine abbey of St Augustine was decisive throughout the high Middle Ages in England. The influence of this monastic centre and its scriptorium extended far beyond the boundaries of Kent and Northumbria. Christ Church Cathedral, especially the east sections, is a unique artistic creation. The beauty of its architecture is enhanced by a set of exceptional stained glass windows which constitute the richest collection in the United Kingdom.

Within the urban perimeter of Canterbury, three distinct cultural properties are on the World Heritage List: the modest St Martin's Church; the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey; and the superb Christ Church Cathedral, a breathtaking mixture of Romanesque and Perpendicular Gothic, where Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170. These three monuments are milestones in the religious history of the regions of Great Britain before the Reformation.

Canterbury Cathedral 

 Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian struc-tures in England and forms part of the World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury. Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077.

The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the twelfth century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late fourteenth century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures. The Goddess Wiki has an extensive and interesting article about the cathedral.

It was strange to receive a stamp that I have been sending out!

It is part of the Dickens set issued in 2012 –