Durham is a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham in the north east of England. Founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Durham University has been the home of Durham University since 1832. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre.
About Durham, England in brief
Durham is a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham in the north east of England. Founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. The city lies on the River Wear, to the south-west of Sunderland, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and to the north of Darlington. Some attribute the city’s name to the legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who in legend guided the monks of Lindisfarne to the site of the present city in 995 AD. Durham is likely to be Gaer Weir in Armes Prydein, derived from Brittonic cajr meaning ‘an enclosed, defensible site’ and the river-name Wear. The original Nordic Dun Holm was changed to Duresme by the Normans and was known in Latin as Dunelm. The modern form Durham came into use later in the city’s history. Durham University has been the home of Durham University since 1832. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre. City of Durham is the name of the civil parish. The name Durham comes from the Celtic element \”dun\”, signifying a hill fort and related to -ton, and the Old Norse ‘holme’ which translates to island. Durham Cathedral was the most important religious site in England until the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket at St. Becket in Canterbury in 1170. During the medieval period the city gained spiritual prominence as the final place of Saint Cuthberts’ resting place.
It was also home to the Venerable Bede and Saint Bede, who were buried in the High Altar of Durham, behind the shrine of St. Thomas. It is said to be one of the first streets in Durham, being directly to the east of Durham Cathedral and taking its name from a depiction of city’s founding etched in masonry on the south side of the cathedral. Local legend states that the city was founded in A. D. 995 by divine intervention. The present city can clearly be traced back to AD 995, when a group of monks from Lindisfars chose the strategic high peninsula as a place to settle with the body of Saint Cuthbert. The first building erected there shortly later was a modest wooden building erected in 998. It no longer remains, having been supplanted by the Norman structure of the Cathedral. The legend is interpreted by a stone carving by a Victorian relief on the face of the south face of Durham cathedral, which reclines by River Wear in view of the view of Durham. It reads: ‘Durham Cow’, which is first documented in The Rites of Durham,. an anonymous account about the Durham Cathedral, published in 1593, builds on Symeon’s account. According to this legend, by chance later that day, the monks came across a milkmaid at Mount Joy. She stated that she was seeking her lost dun cow, which she had last seen at Dunholm.
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This page is based on the article Durham, England published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
