Canterbury Cathedral was founded in 597 by Augustine on the site of one of England's oldest Christian structures. From 1070, Lanfranc rebuilt it as a cross-shaped church closely based on the Abbey of Saint-Étienne in Caen. Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
After a fire in 1174, William of Sens and then William the Englishman rebuilt the quire in the Gothic style, using Caen limestone and Purbeck marble. The Trinity Chapel, completed in 1184, held Becket's shrine, and the crypt survived the fire intact. In the late 14th century Henry Yevele rebuilt the nave and transepts on Norman foundations in the Perpendicular style.
The cathedral is 525 feet (160 m) long and is listed as Romanesque and Gothic. It is the mother church of the Anglican Communion, and UNESCO listed it as part of a World Heritage Site in 1988.
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