Photographs of York Minster

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The first York Minster dates back to the year 627. Bishop Paulinus accompanied the Christian princess Ethelburga of Kent when she came north to marry Edwin of Northumbria. There have been several Minsters since that first wooden building which was built on the site where Constantine the Great, founder of Constantinople and the first Christian Emperor of Rome, was proclaimed emperor. The traditional site of his crowning is preserved under the Minster.
A Danish invasion destroyed the church completely in 1075. The new Norman Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeux, rebuilt the Minster. beginning in 1080. The foundations of this first Norman church can be seen today under the Minster.
A slow makeover of the Minster began in 1220 and has continued ever since as fires and changing fashions have updated the building.