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Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral was the first church in England, one of the original Benedictine Monasteries in Europe, and is regarded as the mother church of Anglican Christendom. The original foundations of Canterbury date back to 597 AD. This was the year Saint Augustine came to Kent promoting Benedictine Monasticism. He instigated the building of the first church, a small, rectangular, one-room building. The growth of Canterbury through the following 1000 years was paralleled by the growth and prosperity of the Christian faith in England, and throughout Europe. Despite facing devastating reverses, the cathedral continued on its inexorable path to the center of English faith. The cathedral’s original architectural style is Norman. After being destroyed by a fire in 1067, the Norman Bishop, Lanfranc, began construction of the present-day cathedral. Lanfranc had the church modeled after French cathedrals of the time, using the new Romanesque style. His masons used large stones from Caen to complete the task. Lanfranc built new monastery buildings, and changed the shape of the cathedral to cruciform. He built a central tower, north and south transepts, a nave, and twin towers at the West End complete with pinnacles. These pinnacles served a more structural purpose than simply visual. Pinnacles were used as counterweights to prevent the flying buttresses from pushing the top of the buttress out of position.
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