In the ancient capital of Wessex stands one of the longest medieval cathedrals in Europe. Winchester has watched over English kings from the age of Alfred, and its nave stretches almost unbroken for nearly 170 metres.
The Old Minster was founded here in 642, when Winchester was the capital of Wessex and, in time, of a united England. The present cathedral was begun in 1079 under Bishop Walkelin and consecrated in 1093.
In the fourteenth century the Norman nave was transformed into soaring Perpendicular Gothic under Bishop William of Wykeham, giving the interior its immense, luminous length.
Anglo-Saxon kings, the Danish King Cnut and the novelist Jane Austen all lie within its walls, binding the cathedral to more than a thousand years of English story.