Overview
Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedra of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion of roughly 85 million members. Founded in 597 by St. Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons, it is among the oldest continuously used Christian sites in the English-speaking world.12
The current building dates primarily from the 11th and 12th centuries, with successive medieval and later additions. Canterbury has been a center of pilgrimage, political drama, liturgical reform, and global Anglican identity for over fourteen centuries.23
Historical significance
Canterbury became the defining stage of a medieval conflict between crown and church when Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral's northwest transept on 29 December 1170 by four knights of King Henry II. Becket was canonized within three years, and his shrine made Canterbury one of the great pilgrimage destinations of Europe — immortalized by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.23
During the English Reformation, Henry VIII destroyed Becket's shrine in 1538 and dissolved the monastic priory attached to the cathedral. Canterbury remained the primatial seat, now of a church separated from Rome. Today the Archbishop of Canterbury presides at the Lambeth Conference, where bishops from across the Anglican Communion gather roughly every decade.31
Architecture and sacred art
The cathedral is an encyclopedia of English church building: the austere Romanesque crypt survives from the Norman rebuilding of 1070–1077; the choir, rebuilt by William of Sens after a fire in 1174, is the earliest fully Gothic choir in England; the nave, rebuilt in the 14th century by Henry Yevele, is a masterpiece of the Perpendicular style.31
The soaring Bell Harry Tower at the crossing was completed around 1498. Inside, the Corona chapel once held a relic of Becket's skull; the Trinity Chapel, with its worn pavement from centuries of kneeling pilgrims, marked the site of his shrine.12
Worship and community
Canterbury remains a daily worshipping community rather than a preserved medieval shell. Eucharist, Morning Prayer, and choral Evensong continue within spaces formed by Benedictine monasticism, royal ceremony, pilgrimage, and Reformation. The archbishop’s seat gives the cathedral a symbolic role across the Anglican Communion, although Anglican provinces are self-governing and the Archbishop of Canterbury is not an Anglican pope.12
The cathedral’s modern identity therefore holds local and global scales together: it serves a diocese and city while also hosting ecumenical encounters, Lambeth Conference worship, memorials, education, and conversations about the Communion’s disagreements.23
Evidence, tradition, and debate
What can history establish?
Bede’s account is the principal early narrative for Augustine’s mission, and archaeology helps illuminate Christian Canterbury, but the exact form of the first cathedral remains partly reconstructed. Becket’s murder is exceptionally well documented by medieval standards; later miracle collections and pilgrimage traditions belong to the history of reception and cannot be read as neutral court transcripts.23
Canterbury also bears the contested legacies of royal power, colonial expansion, and worldwide Anglicanism. Calling the archbishop “spiritual leader” describes a role of honor and convening, not direct jurisdiction over every Anglican church. Current debates about gender, sexuality, empire, and communion make the cathedral a living institution whose meaning is not confined to 597 or 1170.31
- Contemporary evidence
- Material or textual evidence created near the person, place, or event.
- Tradition
- Later community memory, devotion, or institutional claim, attributed to its holders.
- Historical debate
- More than one responsible interpretation remains in active discussion.
- Unknown
- The surviving record cannot presently establish a confident answer.
Present-day visit
Open to visitors most days with a modest entry fee that supports the cathedral foundation. Evensong is sung daily and is open to all without charge.
Hours, access, worship schedules, and local conditions can change. Consult the official church or heritage authority before traveling.