A walk around Canterbury Cathedral

PARADOXPLACE BRITISH ABBEYS AND CATHEDRALS

A Walk Around Canterbury Cathedral

and her cloisters

BACK TO MAIN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL PAGE

Canterbury Cathedral from the north west on a Summer evening in 2007. The monastery buildings (cloister, chapter house et al) are on this (the north) side of the nave. With a bit of distance you can get a much better idea of the comparative size of the Bell Harry Tower. The photo was taken from the grounds of Kent University.

An impressive array of coats of arms and angels adorns the main gate to the cathedral precinct.

Canterbury's famous Bell Harry Tower (completed 1498) is just under 235ft (72m) high. For interest the main tower of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest Cathedral tower in Europe, is 271ft (83m) - it was built in the 1300s and, together with its spire (no longer there), reigned for 200 years as the tallest building in the World. The situationally gross (in Architetto Dottore Professore Paradosso's view) campanile in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, is 325ft (99m), but not built too well as the original fourteen hundreds model fell down in 1902, and was replaced with a copy which the Venetians foolishly put in the same place even after this "tap on the shoulder". The perfectly proportioned "Torre del Mangia", the tower of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, completed in 1348 as the Black Death moved in, is 286ft (88m) high and on par with Lincoln and Canterbury in beauty (Paradosso thinks).

A weathered spearman tackles a hoofed something on a south side capital

SW portico

Hospital ruins (NE side)

Wonderfully weathered blind arcading on the north treasury wall - some pieces older than others - always a restoration challenge in this sort of situation to know when to replace crumbling stone.