Canterbury Facts
Fact 1: Canterbury is one of England's most time-honored cities and offers 2000 years of history. It began as a Belgic settlement that was overrun by the Romans and renamed Durovernum. When the Roman Empire fell, along came the Saxons who called the town Cantwarabyrig.
Fact 2: Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were written towards the end of the fourteenth century and portrays the unexpectedly jovial nature of pilgrimages to Becket's tomb. Becket was an Archbishop who was assassinated in 1170 due in part to the power struggle between archbishops, the abbots from a nearby Benedictine abbey, and King Henry II.
Fact 3: On June 1, 1942, Canterbury suffered devastation during a German bombing in one of the notorious Baedeker Raids. It was at this time that Hitler ordered the destruction of the most treasured historic sites described in the German Baedeker travel guides.
Fact 4: Despite the fact the city boasts the presence of a university and an art and teacher training college, only 35,000 people call Canterbury home. However, it is England's second most visited city, with two million tourists visiting annually!
Fact 5: Canterbury Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Church of England and seat of the Primate of all of England. A Cathedral has stood in its place since 602 AD. However, the current Cathedral has undergone many changes to reach its current appearance.
Fact 6: Even though Canterbury Cathedral is a site to behold, it is St. Martin's Church that can claim being the earliest Christian site in Canterbury. It was here that Queen Bertha welcomed St. Augustine in 597 AD and where her husband, King Ethelbert, was baptized.
Fact 7: Eat, drink and be merry! The culmination of a large student population and the large amount of tourists that descend upon Canterbury each year makes the city the perfect place to experience a varied selection of places to eat and drink. However, don't expect much from the nightlife. The church owns much of the city within the walls and keeps the revelry to a minimum.
Fact 8: If you're visiting Canterbury during the month of October, be sure to check out the city's festival. Canterbury Festival offers an international array of music, theatre, and the arts events. It is held during the middle two weeks of October each year.
Fact 9: The University of Kent at Canterbury was incorporated by a Royal Charter in 1965. With 5000 students, it is a modern university and is well respected due to its scholarly tradition and flexible academic structure.
Fact 10: The Romans originally built the walls surrounding Canterbury in the third century AD to protect the new settlement from raids. The first walls were about ten meters high and two meters thick and enclosed the town where the community lived. The dead were buried outside the walls. When the Romans left, the walls decayed. The present walls were built in the Middle Ages on top of the Roman foundations.
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