St Albans Cathedral 
Southwest view of the long St Albans Cathedral. Photo
Paul Davis.For 100+ more photos, see our St Albans Cathedral Photo Gallery.
View of St. Albans Cathedral in October. Public domain.
West end of the long nave, on a sunny day in January.
View from the southeast. Public domain.
The cathedral is made of brick and flint quarried from Roman Verulamium.
The long nave, looking west. A mural can be seen on the left.
Two medieval depictions of the Crucifixion on pillars of the nave.
Painted Norman arches in the choir.
Shrine of St. Alban.
Lantern vault under the great Norman tower.
St Albans Cathedral, which makes an easy day trip from London, is interesting for a variety of reasons - it shelters the shrine of England's first Christian martyr, it is constructed from the ruins of a Roman city, it boasts the longest nave in Britain, it has some fine Norman architecture, and retains numerous 13th- and 14th-century wall paintings.
History
In 209 AD, a Roman soldier named Alban became England's first martyr - he was beheaded for giving shelter to a Christian priest. Pilgrims flocked to his tomb, especially after it became legal to do so (in 313 AD). St Germanus of Auxerre visited the site in 429.
A church was built on the site at an early date - in the early 700s, the church historian Bede wrote of "the beautiful Church worthy of all Alban's martyrdom where miracles of healing took place." A Saxon abbey was later founded on the site by King Offa of Mercia in 793 and refounded under a new monastic rule by St Oswald in the 960s.
For all these structures, the ruins of nearby Roman Verulamium provided plentiful building material. The Saxon abbey was replaced by a Norman abbey in 1077, also using the Roman materials, and it is the 11th-century abbey church that forms the bulk of today's cathedral. In the Middle Ages, it was one of the largest churches in the world.
All the monastic buildings and the 14th-century shrine of St Alban were smashed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. But the church was purchased back from Henry VIII by the townspeople in 1553.
In 1856-77, a major Victorian restoration of the church was led by Sir George Gilbert Scott. In 1862, the nave murals were uncovered after being hidden under whitewash for almost 300 years.
In 1877, the diocese of St Albans was created and the church thereby attained cathedral status. Further restorations were undertaken by Lord Grimthorpe in 1880-85, including the addition of the west front.
Further restoration and additions were made throughout the 20th century, including a new chapter house dedicated by the Queen in 1982. In 1993, reconstruction of the Shrine of St Alban was completed and rededicated in the presence of the Queen Mother.
In 2002, St Albans Cathedral received a gift of a bone believed to belong to St Alban from the Catholic Church of St Pantaleon in Cologne. The relic was placed within the Shrine Pedestal.
What to See
St Albans Cathedral occupies a lovely, grassy location on a hilltop above the city. The extra-long (300 feet) and imposing Norman nave is capped with a fairly dull west front, added in the 19th century.
Inside, the scale of the nave is equally impressive. The north arcade is made of original Norman pillars; the south has Early English Gothic replacements in five bays (1323-1327). Several of the Norman pillars retain their 13th- and 14th-century murals, depicting Crucifixions (one on a living tree), saints, and other subjects.
Elegant Norman arches decorated with painted geometrical designs can be admired in the nave, choir and tower crossing. The huge lantern vault under the tower is decorated with colorful rows of coats of arms.
The nave ends at the finely constructed Gothic rood screen, which unfortunately is empty of all its statues. Behind the high altar is a stone reredos of 1484, its many niches filled with statues.
Beyond this is the reasons for the church's construction in the first place - the shrine of St Alban. This was smashed at the Reformation but painstakingly reconstructed from more than 2,000 fragments found all over the cathedral in 1993.
The Purbeck marble shrine is topped with a red canopy and retains some original carvings - look for the scene on the west end depicting the saint's martyrdom by beheading. The shrine, dedicated as the "Altar of the Persecuted," is still a place of pilgrimage and devotion today.
The far east end is occupied by the Lady Chapel, which was built in 1308-25. After the Dissolution it was used as a school, but was returned to religious use in 1870.
The cathedral treasury contains several items of interest, such as a medieval pilgrim badge depicting St. Alban's martyrdom, and is enriched by good explanatory signs.
Quick Facts
| Names: | St Albans Cathedral; Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban |
| Type of site: | Cathedral; Christian monastery; Catholic shrine |
| Faith: | Anglican (originally Roman Catholic) |
| Status: | Active |
| Date: | 1077 |
| Architecture: | Norman with Gothic additions |
| Material: | Brick and flint |
| Size: | Nave is almost 300 feet long |
| Location: | St Albans, Hertfordshire, England |
| Phone: | +44(0)1727 860780 |
| Website: | www.stalbanscathedral.org.uk |
| Hours: | Daily 8:30-5:45 (closes 1pm on Dec 25) |
| Cost: | Free |
| Tip: | A fine view can be had of the cathedral from the medieval clocktower in the city centre. |
Getting There
By train from London, take the Thameslink train from King's Cross in the direction of Bedford. The journey takes about 25 minutes.
By car, St Albans is just five minutes outside the M25 and midway between the two main routes to the Midlands and the North - the M1 and A1(M).
Location Map
Below is a location map and aerial view of St Albans Cathedral. Using the buttons on the left, zoom in for a closer look or zoom out to get your bearings. Click and drag the map to move around. For a larger view, see our St Albans Map or get our free Google Earth download.
Sources
- Personal visit (January 2006).
- Rough Guide to England 7 (May 2006), 347-48.
- Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban - official website
More Information
- Eileen Roberts, The Hill of the Martyr: an architectural history of St Albans Abbey (Dunstable, 1994).
