Description of the attraction
Christ Church Oxford is the cathedral of the Oxford Diocese in Great Britain. It is also the church of Christ Church College, one of the largest and most famous colleges at the University of Oxford. For a long time it was considered the smallest cathedral in England, but recently it is no longer one, because Several small parish churches received the status of a cathedral.
Originally on this site was the church of the monastery of the Virgin Mary, founded by Saint Fridesvida. Fridesvida is considered the patron saint of Oxford, and her cancer is now kept in the cathedral. In the 12th century, the Augustinian monks founded the abbey of Saint Fridesvida here and built a church named after her. In 1525, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dissolved the abbey and founded Cardinal College on its lands. In 1532, the college was renamed the College of King Henry VIII, and in 1546 - Christ Church College (Church of Christ).
The tower of the cathedral is one of the oldest in England, its lower part dates back to the XII century, and the upper one - to the XIII century. The fan-shaped ceiling of the church rivals the beauty of the School of Divinity at the Bodleian Library. They are considered the most beautiful examples of fan-shaped ceilings.
Also in the cathedral you can see beautiful stained glass windows. Behind the shrine of St. Frideswida is a window by the famous Edward Burns-Jones depicting scenes from the life of the saint (1858). To the left of the entrance to the cathedral is the window of Jonah, where the figure of Jonah is made using the stained glass technique, the rest is a glass painting depicting the city of Nineveh in great detail. The oldest stained glass window is the Thomas Beckett window, where you can see one of the few surviving portraits of the archbishop.
