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Sometimes portrayed as a remote and unsophisticated place, Norwich the East Anglia’s modern regional capital is one of the most complete medieval city in Britain. Within the remnants of its old walls, you’ll find an intricate network of winding streets and over 1,500 historic buildings, a contrasting blend of history and buzzing street life with museums, galleries, theatres, concerts, cinema and flocks of youngsters wandering among the countless shops and market stalls along the cobbled streets of the old town. It is the wealth of historical architecture of Norwich that interest us. Norwich still has a delightful jumble of medieval cobbled streets, lanes and alleys lined with small shops, half-timbered houses and a large number of medieval parish churches with their 'flushwork' decoration of stone and flint that makes famous Norwich architecture..
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The Norwich skyline is dominated by its magnificent Cathedral, featuring the largest cloisters in England, the second tallest spire and an amazing 1,200 stone roof bosses. The picturesque Cathedral Close leads us to the Riverside Walk, a picturesque walk along the bank of the River Wensum. The xii century Norman Castle today a museum is one of the finest Norman secular buildings in Europe.
Much of Norwich's houses and commercial building in the city centre, dates from the Victorian and Edwardian periods (xviii - xix century) like the neo-Gothic St John’s Roman Catholic cathedral. Above the market is the new City Hall (1938) and in contrast to the City’s medieval buildings, the architecturally stunning Forum. Next to the City Hall is the medieval Guildhall (1410) the old place of local government with the distinctive design of fine chequered flint work on the outside. One of the major post-war reconstruction was the University of East Anglia in 1964.
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Within the city walls Norwich has the largest number of medieval parish churches of any city in northern Europe. Mostly built in the perpendicular style, typical of the mid 14th to early 16th centuries, the churches are noted for their remarkable display of flushwork - patterns made with white stone that contrasts against the dark flintwork.
St Michael at Plea tower and porch are a prominent City landmark. St Giles tower which dominates the city used to be a beacon tower. The church of St Martin at Palace is one of the oldest in Norwich, it stands close to a stretch of the riverbank St Michael (Miles) Coslany church with huge Perpendicular windows. St. John Maddermarket. St Peter Mancroft (1430 - 1455) the largest of the Norwich churches and one of the finest medieval parish churches, it is entirely faced with freestone, and flint is used only for flushwork. The glory of the church is its east window, the best surviving example of Norwich glass.
Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist (xix c) a massive construction at one of the highest points in the city. It is an example of revival architecture.
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Norwich Castle
One of the City’s most famous landmarks, Norwich Castle, was built in 1067 by the Normans of William the Conqueror on a pre-existent Saxon village. The original structure was a timber motte and bailey type housing standing on a natural rise in the land augmented by an artificial mound.
Later (1120) the square keep was built on top of the motte to serve as a Royal Palace. The construction was in limestone over a flint core. It is one of the largest Norman keeps in the country, the exterior is decorated with arcading, a most unusual feature and used perhaps because it was built as a king's palace (Castle Rising in Norfolk is the only other comparable example). Today of the original building only the shell of the keep survive.
The entry to the keep was up a flight of stairs to a vestibule at first-floor level and through the grand entrance into the great hall. This large room, where most of the garrison people lived and slept, took up much of the northern half of the keep. Beyond it were a pantry, a small private kitchen and latrines. The southern half of the keep was divided into a number of smaller rooms, including a chapel, the great chamber, with a large fireplace, used by the king. Traces of the Norman rooms can still be made out, including the apse of the chapel and the fireplace in the great chamber.
From 1220 till 1887 the castle was used as a gaol, with additional buildings constructed on the top of the motte next to the keep and other alterations. Afterwards the site was purchased by the city to be used as a museum.
Although the keep remains, its outer shell has been repaired repeatedly and, though the patterns of blank arcading were faithfully reproduced, they lost some of their original texture. None of the inner or outer bailey buildings survive. The Norman bridge over the inner ditch was replaced in 1825. The castle's surrounding dry moat is now a public garden.
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The Cathedral of the Holy Undivided Trinity
Separated from the busy streets of the town, covered in white limestone ashlar imported from Caen in France, this great church has a tower and a spire of 96m. The ground plan is almost unchanged from the original Norman ground plan and walls. At the time of its completion in 1145, it was the largest building in Norfolk and today the nave still shows much of that original work. The large cloister dates from the xiii to xv century and the tower dates from xii c. and xv c. The cathedral has a unique collection of over 1000 roof bosses painted and carved into the stone vaulting on the ceiling of the nave and of the cloister alleys where about 400 bosses are situated, carved during the rebuilding of the cloister from 1297 until 1450. Next to Christian images we find grotesque and fantastic carvings of beasts and monsters like the beautiful images of a Green Man (about seven in total and all different) a mysterious figure maybe related to a pre-Christian cult. From the cloister you enter the church from the Prior’s door or from the monks’ door. As you enter, you may be surprised by the sense of length and height, this feeling is increased by the narrowness of the nave and the perspective created by vaulting of the roof. The Cathedral contains many beautiful and very interesting roof bosses and stained glass and paintings.
Immediately ahead of the Cathedral west front there is the Erpingham Gate (1420).
Alongside the Cathedral the Close is one of the largest in England. It contains a mixture of residential and commercial properties, and the entrance to the Cathedral Herb Garden.
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The riverside
Ferry Lane, formerly a canal, leads down to the picturesque Watergate (Pull’s Ferry) (1600) - the water gate to the Close in medieval time. The Caen stone, from which most of the cathedral was constructed, was transported along this canal. Bishopgate Bridge, the only surviving medieval bridge. Cow Tower, built 1398 as an addition to medieval defences.
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