Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral is one of the finest and most completely realised medieval cathedrals in England, a building of great architectural variety reflecting ten centuries of continuous construction and modification that houses two of the most extraordinary medieval objects in existence: the Mappa Mundi of approximately 1300, the largest surviving medieval map of the world, and the Chained Library, one of the finest collections of chained books in the world. The combination of the architectural quality, the Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library makes Hereford one of the most intellectually rewarding cathedral visits available in the English Midlands.
The Mappa Mundi is the most remarkable single object in the cathedral collection, a circular map of the world drawn on a single sheet of calf skin approximately 1.5 metres in diameter that places Jerusalem at the centre and encompasses the known world of the medieval European imagination in a complex integration of geography, theology, classical learning and imagination. The map combines real geographical features with legendary beasts, biblical events and classical references in a synthesis of medieval knowledge that provides the most comprehensive single visual document of how educated Europeans understood the world in 1300.
The Chained Library of approximately 1,500 books, each secured to its shelf by a chain attached to the front edge of the binding, is the largest surviving chained library in the world. The library occupies its original oak presses in a condition of remarkable completeness.