Themed Chess Sets: Canterbury Cathedral

You may not know about the range of themed chess sets that are available.  If you are looking for chess sets online, have a look at the chess sets for sale at ChessSetHeaven.com.  If the carved chess set that inspires your interest is the one based on the theme of Canterbury Cathedral, you might like to know something about the history and life of that amazing building set in South East England, in the lovely county of Kent.

 

Canterbury Cathedral has a very long and enthralling history.  We have to go all the way back to 596 AD to find the origins of the cathedral.  They date back to the time of St. Augustine.  Augustine was sent as a missionary to England by Pope Gregory the Great. The Pope made Augustine an Archbishop and he established his seat in the in the Roman city of Canterbury on the river Stour.  The word cathedral comes from the Latin word for seat, which is ‘cathedra’.

 

The Saxon and Viking eras saw many changes on the site at Canterbury.  These included the building of a baptistry, the lengthening of the nave and the addition of a Benedictine abbey.

 

Unfortunately, the Danish raids of 1011 badly damaged the cathedral.  However, it was rebuilt by the Norman Archbishop Lanfranc and was dedicated in 1077.

  

If you knew anything about Canterbury Cathedral before looking at themed chess sets it was probably the brutal murder of one of its archbishops within the building itself.   In December 1170, the knights of King Henry II killed Thomas Beckett in the northwest transept of the cathedral. 

 

Then, only four years later, disaster struck again – this time in the form of a devastating fire, which destroyed a large part of the building. The rebuilding of the cathedral was, for the most part, paid for by the income from pilgrims who visited Becket’s shrine.  Even if you didn’t read any of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales at school, you will surely have heard of his stories of some of pilgrims to Canterbury.

 

A visitor to Canterbury in the 12^th century would have seen separate groups of buildings. It would have been possible to distinguish the church, the menial buildings and those devoted to monastic life.  The work of the cathedral as a monastery ended in 1540.   This followed further disaster and rebuilding when an earthquake in 1382 caused great damage and the nave was rebuilt.

 

The cathedral experienced further damage from the Puritans during the English Civil War in the 17^th century. Much of the old stained glass was destroyed and horses were stabled in the nave.  It took several years to repair the damage.

 

In the 19^th century, Lanfranc’s North West tower was found to be dangerous.  It was demolished and replaced with a copy of the South West tower.

 

During the Second World War, the diligence of a team of firewatchers ensured that, although the Precincts were badly affected, the cathedral itself was not seriously damaged.        

 

Visitors from all over the world still flock to Canterbury Cathedral every day.  They marvel at its architecture and its history.  Many appreciate the time they can spend in this place of prayer that has been a focus for pilgrimages for so many years.

 

Go to ChessSetHeaven.com to find Canterbury Cathedral themed chess sets made with hand painted chess set pieces.