Durham Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, is a cathedral in Durham, England. It was built in 1093 to replace the city’s previous church, and it’s the seat of the Bishop of Durham. It is also the home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert. The cathedral and Durham Castle were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The cathedral walls played a pivotal role in serving as a defensive fortress against invaders from the border with Scotland.
Durham Cathedral’s origins lie in the Diocese of Lindisfarne, founded in 635. It became the site of the shrine of the revered St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne. After Viking raids, his monks fled with the relics until they arrived on a peninsula formed by a loop in the River Wear. Cuthbert’s coffin became immovable, signaling that a new shrine should be built. A very simple temporary structure was built from local timber to house his relics, and it was later replaced with a stone building known as the White Church in 998. In 1083, Bishop William de St-Calais founded the Benedictine Priory of St Cuthbert at Durham and replaced secular canons with monks from Wearmouth and Jarrow.
St. Cuthbert’s relics were housed here, and the site soon became a destination for Christian pilgrimages. The Cathedral was designed and built under William de St-Calais, who in 1080 was appointed as the first Prince-Bishop by King William the Conqueror. The monks continued building the monastic buildings while the bishop took responsibility for completing the cathedral. The primary reason for the cathedral was to house the bodies of St. Cuthbert and Bede. Many additions and reconstructions have been made, but the greater part of the structure remains the original Norman building.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1093, and the choir was completed by 1096. At the death of Bishop William of St. Calais in 1096, the Chapter House was used as his burial place. The monks continued to look after the Shrine of St Cuthbert until the dissolution of the monasteries. The nave’s walls were finished by 1128, and the high vault was completed by 1135. Three bishops, William of St. Carilef, Ranulf Flambard, and Hugh de Puiset, are buried in Chapter House.
In the 1170s, Hugh de Puiset added the Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral. The five-aisled building was a Lady chapel where the great west door is blocked by the tomb of Bishop Thomas Langley. Richard le Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, was translated to Durham in 1228, having just rebuilt Salisbury Cathedral in the Gothic style. He employed the architect Richard Farnham to design an eastern terminal for the building, resulting in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. The original roof of the cathedral was replaced by a vault in 1250, which is still in place. The towers also date from the early 13th century, but the central tower was damaged by lightning and replaced in two stages in the 15th century. The Bishop of Durham was the temporal lord of the palatinate and competed for power with the Prior of Durham Monastery.
The Shrine of Saint Cuthbert was located in the eastern apsidal end of the cathedral. The location of the inner wall of the apse is marked on the pavement, and St. Cuthbert’s tomb is covered by a simple slab. However, an unknown monk wrote in 1593: [The shrine] was estimated to be one of the most sumptuous in all England, so great were the offerings and jewels bestowed upon it and endless the miracles that were.
In addition to the cathedral and castle, Durham has been a center for the visual and literary arts. The Durham Dean and Chapter Library contains sets of early printed books, the pre-Dissolution monastic accounts, and three copies of Magna Carta. Durham Cathedral is known for its daily Church of England services and its choir, which sings daily except for Mondays and holidays. In 2019, it received 727,367 visitors.
Posted by millicand@rocketmail.com on 2022-08-05 01:54:05