St. Albans Cathedral

St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban, stands on the spot where Alban, Britain's first Christian martyr, was executed by the Romans in the early centuries AD. The present building was begun by the Normans in 1077, much of it constructed from reused Roman bricks salvaged from the nearby ruins of Verulamium, giving the great tower its distinctive warm red-pink hue.

Inside, the cathedral combines Norman, Gothic and Victorian work, with the longest medieval nave in England stretching beneath an extraordinary painted wooden ceiling. The shrine of St Alban, painstakingly reconstructed from fragments smashed at the Reformation, remains a place of pilgrimage, while the medieval wall paintings on the nave piers are among the finest to survive in Britain.

The cathedral sits at the top of Holywell Hill in the centre of St Albans, surrounded by parkland that slopes down to the lake and the Roman remains of Verulamium Park. It is a short walk from the city's market place and a few minutes from St Albans City railway station, with frequent trains from London St Pancras.