Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, UK

Photo donated to Wikimedia Commons by DLiff.

 A Romanesque/Gothic cathedral built by the Anglo-Saxons between 1118 and 1237 A.D., Peterborough is located north of London in the province of Canterbury, Cambridgeshire, England.  It is directly east of Birmingham and northwest of Cambridge University.  A Wikimapia view of the cathedral grounds may be found here.

For reasons that become very clear as one explores the interior, Peterborough Cathedral is one of the UK's Top 10 landmarks.  Additional video views and 360-degree Full-screen Virutal Tours may be found at Peterborough Cathedral's home page here. 

According to Wikipedia's Peterborough Cathedral article, the church is "properly the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Andrew -- also known as St. Peter's Cathedral," and it is the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough.  "With Durham and Ely cathedrals, it is one of the most important 12th-Century buildings in England to have remained largely in tact, despite extensions and restoration."

Above: The Hedda Stone, an excellent example of Anglo-Saxon art, has been kept in Peterborough Cathedral since the 8th Century, when the cathedral was a monastery known as Medeshamstede.  Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Below: The grave of  Katharine of Aragon, Queen of England (1485 - 1536), is at Peterborough.  Those who have read Shakespeare's Henry VIII, who have watched The Other Boleyn Girl (2003) or who have seen the TV-series The Tudors (2007 - 2010) will recognize Katharine as the long-suffering first wife of King Henry VIII. 

In 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was also once buried at Peterborough, after her execution at nearby Fotheringay Castle, but Mary was later removed to Westminster Abbey by her son, King James I.