Canterbury

Canterbury, city (1991 pop. 34,046) and district, Kent, SE England, on the Stour River. Tourism, services, and retail are the city's main industries. There is also some light manufacturing. Canterbury is famous as the long-time spiritual center of England. In 597, St. Augustine went to England from Rome to convert the island peoples to Christianity. He founded an abbey at Canterbury and became the first archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England. The early cathedral was burned and rebuilt several times. After the murder (1170) of Thomas à Becket and the penance of Henry II, Canterbury became famous throughout Europe as the object of pilgrimage, and the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer relate the stories told by a fictional group of pilgrims. The present cathedral was begun under Archbishop Lanfranc, the first Norman archbishop. Constructed from 1070 to 1180 and from 1379 to 1503, it is a magnificent structure, its architecture embodying the styles of several periods and various architects. Noteworthy are the 15th-century tower (235 ft/72 m high); the long transepts; the screen separating the raised choir from the Perpendicular nave; the east chapel (called the Corona or Becket's Crown), which contains the marble chair in which the archbishops are enthroned; Trinity Chapel, which held the shrine of St. Thomas until 1538, when Henry VIII ordered it destroyed and the accumulated wealth confiscated; the chapel in which French Protestants worshiped in the 16th cent. and where services are still held in French; the northwestern transept (where a stone slab commemorates the exact site of Thomas à Becket's murder); and the tombs of Henry IV and Edward the Black Prince. During World War II the cathedral was the object of severe German reprisal raids (June, 1942), which destroyed the library and many other surrounding buildings; the cathedral itself received no direct damage. The city of Canterbury is also of great historical interest, with a 14th-century gate and remains of the old city walls; St. Martin's Church (established before St. Augustine's arrival and known as the Mother Church of England); the old pilgrims' hostel called the Hospital of St. Thomas; and several old inns. Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury and educated at King's School there before going to Cambridge. Other schools are the Univ. of Kent at Canterbury, and theological, art, and teacher-training colleges.

---

Canterbury

Historic city and administrative district (pop., 2001: 135,287), southeastern England. Located on the River Great Stour, the site has been occupied since pre-Roman times; the Roman town of Durovernum Cantiacorum was established after Claudius invaded Britain in AD 43. It has been an ecclesiastical metropolis of England since St. Augustine of Canterbury founded a monastery there in 602 and later established a cathedral. The cathedral was the scene of the murder of Archbishop St. Thomas Becket in 1170. After his canonization in 1172, it became a pilgrimage shrine; it is the destination of the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Canterbury was heavily bombed in World War II, but the cathedral largely escaped damage. The cathedral and other historic buildings were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.

---

Canterbury

1. a city in SE England, in E Kent: starting point for St Augustine's mission to England (597 ad); cathedral where St Thomas à Becket was martyred (1170); seat of the archbishop and primate of England; seat of the University of Kent (1965). Pop.: 43 552 (2001)

2. a regional council area of New Zealand, on E central South Island on Canterbury Bight: mountainous with coastal lowlands; agricultural. Chief town: Christchurch. Pop.: 520 500 (2004 est.). Area: 43 371 sq. km (16 742 sq. miles)

---

Canterbury 

a city in Great Britain, in the county of Kent, England. Population, 33,000 (1971). It has small leather, food, and electrical-engineering enterprises and printing industries.

Canterbury arose on the site of a Celtic settlement that had been replaced by a Roman camp. In the sixth century it became the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent. The country’s oldest bishopric and abbey, founded in 597, are in Canterbury. The archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Anglican Church.

The town has a comparatively regular layout and a wealth of medieval structures (churches, hospitals, residences). The cathedral, built from 1070 to 1503, is the main Anglican church; it has a Romanesque crypt, an Early Gothic choir (1175–84; architect, Guyom of Sans), a Late Gothic nave (c. 1377–1411), and the Corona, a chapel rotunda (built c. 1200 to replace the apse). The Royal Museum houses an art gallery and antiquities of Kent.

REFERENCE

Cook, G. H. Portrait of Canterbury Cathedral. London, 1949.