Gloucester Cathedral

Formally known as the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, this is an huge and imposing place.

Wikipedia tells us that...

It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to Saint Peter and founded by Osric, King of the Hwicce, in around 679. The subsequent history of the church is complex; Osric's foundation came under the control of the Benedictine Order at the beginning of the 11th century and in around 1058, Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, established a new abbey "a little further from the place where it had stood". The abbey appears not to have been an initial success, by 1072, the number of attendant monks had reduced to two. The present building was begun by Abbott Serlo in about 1089, following a major fire the previous year.

William the Conqueror held his Christmas Court at the chapter house in 1085, at which he ordered the compilation of Domesday Book. In October 1216, Henry II was crowned at the abbey. Following another disastrous fire in 1222, an ambitious rebuilding programme was begun. In the 14th century, the Great and Little Cloisters were constructed, displaying the earliest, and perhaps the finest, examples of fan vaulting anywhere. The cathedral contains the shrine of Edward II, who was murdered at Berkeley Castle nearby.

The buttresses and the towers that rise from them also surround the abbey courtyard enclosed by the great hallways. More on them later.

From the abbey courtyard, one can see the mighty tower of the cathedral standing above everything.