St Albans Cathedral

St Albans Cathedral is the number one tourist destination in St Albans and attracts approximately 200,000 visitors per year from the UK and abroad. It hosts hundreds of events and services throughout the year. The Cathedral is built on the site of the martyrdom of Alban, Britain's first saint. St Alban was an Anglo-Romano citizen who was executed a... round 300 AD. It is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It houses the Shrines of St Alban and St Amphibalus, and is a major site of Christian worship to this day. The Cathedral architecture is a blend of many different periods, with Anglo-Saxon features dating back to King Offa's church, founded on the site in 793. Work started on the current church building in 1077; it was the largest building in the country at the time. Its great Norman tower and nave were built using Roman bricks salvaged from the ruins of Verulamium. The Benedictine monastery was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey church was bought by the townspeople to become the parish church, which it remains today. The Victorians undertook a major restoration and it became a cathedral in 1877. St Albans Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of St Albans which serves the people of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, the Borough of Luton and parts of the London Borough of Barnet, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire.Read More