This former Abbey Church founded 1300 years ago is now the  Cathedral Church of the Gloucester Diocese. The tradition of daily worship  continues.

College Green, Gloucester
Tel: 01452 528095  Fax:  01452 300469

Email: office@gloucester2001.demon.co.uk

Open: Daily 7.30am until 18.00 pm (Occasionally  closed for events).

Price: Free (donation of £2.50 for Adults and £1.00  for Children is recommended.)

This former Abbey Church founded 1300 years ago is  now the Cathedral Church of the Gloucester Diocese. The tradition of daily  worship continues.  Evensong is sung most evenings.  The Cathedral contains many  architectural features, a Norman nave with massive columns plus examples of both  Romanesque and early perpendicular.  The glazed cloisters with world famous  early fan vaulting and the monks' lavatorium are well worth seeing. visit.   Other features include the medieval glass of the Great East Window and the tombs  of Edward II and Robert Duke of Normandy.

Gloucester Cathedral is one of the locations of  Hogwarts School in the movie 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' and  'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'.

Gloucester Cathedral is one of Europe's enduring  architectural glories. It is the focal point of Gloucester's religious and  spiritual life, a magnificent building which embraces the evolution of the  ancient to modern world.
This is embodied in two very different pieces of  stonework situated within a few feet of each other in the North Transept. The  ornate tomb of the murdered King Edward II is one of the Cathedral's greatest  treasures. People visit it from all over the world, as they have done since the  medieval pilgrims flocked here.

Only a few steps away, you'll find a very different  piece of stonemasonry - a tiny cross, obviously fashioned by a loving but  amateur hand. This is Colonel Carne's Cross, carved with a nail in the Chinese  prison camps, by the intrepid Commanding Officer of the 'Glorious Glosters', who  preferred to go into captivity with his men rather than escape to freedom after  the heroic battle at Solma Ri on the Imjin River during the Korean War in April  1951. He was later awarded the honour of the Victoria Cross.

Colonel Carne's Cross is one of many fine memorials  to military history within the Cathedral. The Great East Window, said to be the  largest single expanse of medieval stained glass in Britain (and big enough to  play tennis on) was constructed as a memorial to the Battle of Crecy.

The highlight of a visit to the Cathedral is surely  the Cloisters. They are the most complete example of medieval cloisters in the  country, and the magnificent fan tracery of the vaulting is the earliest extant.  The exquisite, tiny, Cloister Garth, contained within the corridors themselves,  is one of the most tranquil places imaginable.

There are two permanent exhibitions - the Treasury  Exhibition open every day except Sundays, from April to September. Similarly the  Cathedral Exhibition, which encapsulates the whole history of the Abbey and  Cathedral.