Cathedral

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The Cathedral at Worcester
or more properly known as
The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester
.

The Cathedral has been described as the most architecturally interesting
and one of the most pleasingly located of all English Cathedrals
especially when viewed from the river. The building represents every
style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic.

View of Worcester Cathedral from the river

The term cathedral comes from French cathédrale from Latin cathedra,
 "seat" from the Greek kathedra (καθέδρα) seat, bench, from kata "down"
+ hedra seat, base, chair. Hence it is a Christian church which holds the
seat of a Bishop, in this case the seat of The Right Reverend Lord
Bishop of Worcester.

The See of Worcester was founded in 680 AD by the Benedictine monks of
Whitby when Bosel was consecrated as the first Bishop. The first
Cathedral being dedicated to Saint Peter. Some three hundred years
later a Benedictine monastery was founded by Oswald on the site
with a monastery church, or minster, dedicated to Saint Mary which
replaced the earlier church of St. Peter.
In 1084 Bishop Wulfstan commenced the present building beginning
with the crypt. Building and re-building work continued until 1432.
Between 1640 and 1660 considerable damage was done to the
building by Parliamentarian forces.
Much restoration work was undertaken by the Victorians between
1857-1877 and work on the Cathedral, started in 1988, is still
ongoing.  
King John, a devotee of St. Wulfstan, was buried in the Cathedral in
1216 and Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII and heir to the
Tudor throne, was buried in the Choir in 1502.

Image of the East End of Worcester Cathedral


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