A monastery was founded on this site around 655, making it one of the oldest ecclesiastical foundations in England. The Saxons called it Medeshamstede before it became known as Peterborough. Vikings destroyed the original monastery in 870, but it was refounded in 966 under the Benedictine rule. The building visitors see today is overwhelmingly Norman. After a devastating fire in 1116, Abbot Jean de Seez began a complete rebuild that continued for over a century. The result is a remarkably unified Norman interior -- massive cylindrical piers marching down the nave, round-headed arches layered three deep, and above it all the extraordinary painted wooden ceiling. Dating from around 1230, this ceiling is one of the oldest and most complete of its kind in Europe, decorated with figures of saints, kings, and mythical beasts in a diamond pattern of astonishing intricacy.

Peterborough Cathedral holds the distinction of having buried two queens. Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII whose refusal to accept an annulment triggered the English Reformation, was buried here in 1536 after dying at nearby Kimbolton Castle. Her grave, marked with a simple stone and frequently adorned with fresh pomegranates -- the symbol of her native Granada -- remains a place of pilgrimage. Mary, Queen of Scots was also buried at Peterborough after her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, though her son James I later had her remains moved to Westminster Abbey. The cathedral's connection to these two women -- both of whom died as prisoners, both of whose fates shaped the course of English history -- gives Peterborough a weight of significance that belies its relatively modest city.

During the English Civil War, Parliamentarian soldiers caused enormous damage to the cathedral in 1643, smashing stained glass, destroying the high altar, and tearing out the choir stalls and cloisters. Cromwell's troops used the nave as a stable. The Lady Chapel was demolished entirely. But the building's core survived, and subsequent centuries brought careful restoration. The west front, completed around 1238, received its later porch addition in the 14th century -- a smaller arch inserted between the two outer arches that some consider an unfortunate interruption of the original design. Alongside the cathedrals of Durham and Ely, Peterborough stands as one of the three great surviving monuments of 12th-century English architecture, largely intact despite centuries of conflict and weather. John Ruskin may have reserved his highest praise for Lincoln, but Peterborough's nave -- with its unbroken Norman rhythm and that painted ceiling floating above -- makes its own quietly magnificent case.