The City
The main streets lead off to the compass's cardinal points from the Gothic Market Cross , a bulky octagonal rotunda topped by ornate finials and a large crown, and built in 1501 to provide shelter for the market traders, although it appears far too small for its function. A short stroll down West Street brings you to the neat form of the Cathedral (daily: Easter to mid-Sept 7.30am-7pm; mid-Sept to Easter 7.30am-5pm; vo@chicath.freeserve.co.uk ), whose slender spire - a nineteenth-century addition - is visible from out at sea. Building began in the 1070s, but the church was extensively rebuilt following a fire a century later and has been only minimally modified since about 1300, except for the spire and the unique, free-standing fifteenth-century bell tower, which now houses the cathedral shop. The interior is renowned for its contemporary devotional art, which includes a stained-glass window by Marc Chagall and an enormous altar-screen tapestry by John Piper. Other points of interest are the sixteenth-century painting in the north transept of the past bishops of Chichester, and the fourteenth-century Fitzalan tomb which inspired a poem by Philip Larkin. However, the highlight is a pair of reliefs in the south aisle, close to the tapestry - created around 1140, they show the raising of Lazarus and Christ at the gate of Bethany. Originally highly coloured, the reliefs once featured semi-precious stones set in the figures' eyes and are among the finest Romanesque stone carvings in England. Across South Street in the well-preserved Georgian quadrant of the city known as the Pallants, you'll find Pallant House Gallery , 9 North Pallant (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun & public holidays 12.30am-5pm; GBP4; ). Stone dodos stand guard over the gates of this fine mansion, which houses artefacts and furniture from the early eighteenth century. Modern works of art are also included, among them pieces by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and George Sutherland's portrait of Walter Hussey, the former Dean of Chichester, who commissioned much of the cathedral's contemporary art. Continuing in an anticlockwise direction around the town and crossing East Street to head north up Little London brings you to the Chichester District Museum (Tues-Sat 10am-5.30pm; free), housed in an old white weatherboarded corn store. Inside, the modest but entertaining display on local life includes a portable oven carried by Joe Faro, the city pieman, as well as the portable stocks used for the ritual humiliation of petty criminals. The Guildhall (June-Aug Sat noon-4pm; free), a branch museum within a thirteenth-century Franciscan church in the middle of Priory Park, at the north end of Little London, has some well-preserved medieval frescoes. It was formerly a town hall and court of law; the poet, painter and visionary William Blake was tried here for sedition.
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