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From Market Place, it's a five-minute walk up Saddler Street to the majestic Durham Cathedral , facing the castle across the manicured Palace Green (July-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun 12.30-8pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9.30am-6.15pm, Sun 12.30-5pm; guided tours June & July Sat 10.30am & 2pm; Aug & Sept Mon-Fri 10.30am, 11.30am & 2pm, Sat 10.30am, 11.30am, 2pm & 6.15pm, Sun 5pm; access may be restricted due to services and events, call 0191/386 4266 to check; GBP3 suggested donation; tours GBP3). Built to house the remains of St Cuthbert, the present cathedral was completed in 1133, and has survived the centuries pretty much intact, a supreme example of the Norman-Romanesque style. Entry is through the northwest porch, where a replica of the lion-head sanctuary knocker is a reminder of the medieval distinction between secular and religious law. The church used to be ringed by wooden crosses and, once a fugitive reached them, he or she could claim sanctuary from the lay authorities for up to 35 days. The awe-inspiring nave , completed in 1128, is an inventive structure that used pointed arches for the first time in England, raising the vaulted ceiling to new and dizzying heights. The weight of the stone is borne by massive pillars, their heaviness relieved by striking Moorish-influenced geometric patterns - chevrons, diamonds and vertical fluting. Most of the cathedral's early fixtures and fittings were destroyed by Cromwell's Scottish prisoners, who were deposited inside the church after the battle of Dunbar in 1650. The Scots did not, however, damage the gaudily painted, sixteenth-century Prior Castell's clock , located in the south transept, because it sported their emblem, the thistle. A door here gives access to the tower (Mon-Sat: Easter-Sept 9.30am-4pm; Oct-Easter 10am-3pm; GBP2), from the top of which are gut-wrenching views of the city. Separated from the nave by a Victorian marble screen is the choir , where the dark-stained Restoration stalls are overshadowed by the vainglorious bishop's throne , reputedly the highest in medieval Christendom, built on the orders of the fourteenth-century Bishop Hatfield, whose militaristic alabaster tombstone lies just below. Beyond, the Chapel of the Nine Altars dates from the thirteenth century, its Early English stonework distinguished by its delicacy of detail. Here, and around the adjoining Shrine of St Cuthbert , much of the stonework is Frosterley marble, each dark shaft bearing its own fancy pattern of fossils. Cuthbert himself lies beneath a plain marble slab, his presence and shrine having gained a reputation over the centuries for their curative powers. The legend was given credence in 1104, when the saint's body was exhumed for reburial here, upon the completion of the eastern end of the new Norman cathedral, and was found to be completely uncorrupted, more than four hundred years after his death on Lindisfarne. Almost certainly, this was the result of his fellow monks having (unintentionally) preserved the body by laying it in sand containing salt crystals - though to medieval eyes, here was testament enough to the saint's potency. Back near the entrance, at the west end of the church, the Galilee Chapel was begun in the 1170s, its light and exotic decoration in imitation of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Subdivided by twelve slender columns, each surrounded by a medley of geometric patterns, the chapel contains the simple tombstone of the Venerable Bede , the Northumbrian monk credited with being England's first historian. Bede died at the monastery of Jarrow in 735 and his remains were transferred here in 1020. An ancient wooden doorway opposite the main entrance leads into the spacious cloisters , which are flanked by what remains of the monastic buildings. These include the monks' dormitory (Easter-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-3.30pm, Sun 12.30-3.15pm; 80p) and the somewhat misleadingly named Treasures of St Cuthbert exhibition in the undercroft (Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun 2-4.30pm; GBP2): although the attractive display includes some striking relics of St Cuthbert, including the reassembled fragments of his delicately carved and much-travelled oak coffin, a beautiful gold pectoral cross and a silver-plated portable altar, it's mostly given over to ecclesiastical bric-a-brac, from altar plate, bishops' rings and seals to vestments and illuminated manuscripts. The original Sanctuary Knocker is here, too, dating from 1140, and a computer terminal giving you a virtual opportunity to see the major illustrated pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Also in the undercroft is the cathedral cafe, while next door in the impressively converted monastic kitchen is the bookshop.
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