York

York’s rich depth of history is unique in Britain. Within the famous medieval city walls of York are over 30 museums & galleries, award winning attractions and architectural marvels, making it the most popular destination in the north of England.

York’s city walls envelope a compact city of Gothic and Tudor architecture, narrow cobbled streets and a unique history dating back 2,000 years and a rich heritage from its Roman and Viking settlers.

The Romans first settled the area around the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Fosse in AD 71. This walled garrison was called Eboracum and was one of the most northerly outposts in the Roman Empire. Its strategic importance and stature soon grew as did York’s size but by AD 400 the city was abandoned as the Roman Empire collapsed.

York’s next tenants were the Saxons who established the settlement of Eoforwic here in the 5^th Century. In 625 Christianity was introduced when the Saxon king of Northumbria, King Edwin was baptised. Throughout the 7^th and 8^th Centuries York began to thrive once again as a centre for trade and learning attracting visitors from all over Europe.

However visitors of a different kind were also attracted by the prosperity of York and it was repeatedly ransacked by Danish Vikings who in 866 captured the city, renamed it Jorvik and held it as the capital of Danelaw England for nearly 100 years. This rich Viking heritage is unmatched anywhere else in Britain and is celebrated in the fantastic Jorvik Viking Centre with an exhibition of the sights, sounds and even smells of the Viking settlement.

After the Norman conquest of Britain, York was extensively rebuilt and many of York’s landmarks date from this period, most notably York Minster, built in the 11^th Century and is the largest Gothic Church north of the Alps. As the seat of the archbishop of York, the Minster is the second most important church in England, after Canterbury Cathedral.

York is one of the finest examples of a medieval walled city in Europe, its walls date back to the 13^th Century and stretch for three miles around the medieval centre. Within the walls, York conforms to medieval town planning with a warren of narrow cobbled streets running of the main square, such as the timber framed houses around the Shambles, York’s most picturesque and most visited streets. Today York is a fine bustling city that attracts millions of visitors each year.