Durham Cathedral, standing with its castle on a rock in a loop of the River Wear, is among the least altered great Norman buildings in Europe and holds the tombs of two of the most important saints of English Christianity.
Cuthbert and Bede
The cathedral exists because of Cuthbert. His community, driven from Lindisfarne by the Vikings and carrying his body, settled at Durham at the end of the tenth century, and the present cathedral was begun in 1093 to house his shrine, which lies behind the high altar and still draws pilgrims. In the Galilee Chapel at the west end lie the remains of the Venerable Bede, the eighth-century monk of Jarrow whose history of the English Church and people is the foundation of early English history. Two of the north's greatest figures thus rest in one building.
A structural turning point
Durham is the earliest surviving example anywhere of a large church roofed throughout in pointed rib vaults carried on a stone skeleton, the structural idea on which Gothic architecture would be built. Its massive incised columns and the daring of its vaulting make it a decisive moment in the history of building, achieved while the style was still Romanesque. The castle beside it was the fortress of the prince-bishops of Durham, who ruled the region with near-royal powers.
A living cathedral
Durham remains the working cathedral of its diocese, with daily choral worship, and Cuthbert's tomb continues to attract pilgrims as well as visitors. The cathedral and castle together are a World Heritage site, and the building stands as both a monument of the Norman settlement of England and a still-active centre of Christian worship in the north.