Chester Cathedral

The Cathedral is reached from either Northgate Street or the winding St Werburgh Street. Records show that, around 958, the site was occupied by a church and shrine dedicated to St Werburgh (died ca. 700), abbess daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia. A little over a century later, having regard no doubt to the salvation of his not altogether guiltless soul, Hugh Lupus, first Norman Earl of Chester, replaced it with a Benedictine abbey. This in turn became a cathedral when, following the Dissolution, a new diocese was created by Henry VIII in 1541.

Part of the Norman church survives in the north transept. The Lady Chapel and Chapter House are Early Gothic (post 1240), most of the choir High Gothic (1280-1315), and the tower, west front and upper part of the nave Late Gothic (1485-90). The entire building was restored by Sir Gilbert Scott between 1868 and 1899. On entry via the southwest porch, the three aisle pillared nave (14th-16th century) of the Gothic basilica is most striking. The west end incorporates several features of interest: the baptistery, another relic of the Norman church, contains a sixth century Venetian font brought to Chester in the 19th century from a village near Venice; the Consistory Court, though less visually impressive, is nevertheless unique in England.

Handel's Messiah was first rehearsed in Chester Cathedral.