Cantebury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey & St Martin's Church

Designated a World Heritage Site in 1988.

Canterbury has been a key location for the Church of England for nearly five centuries and you'll find many important religious buildings and monuments in the area.

Canterbury Cathedral (www.canterbury-cathedral.org/) was founded in AD597 (that's over 1,400 years ago!) and is the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion. It has a perpendicular nave, 12th-century Gothic choir, stunning stained glass windows that fill the church with colour and a Romanesque crypt.

The Cathedral is the site of the Archbishop Thomas Becket's martyrdom in AD1170. His shrine became one of the most visited in the Middle Ages by pilgrims travelling the Pilgrims' Way from London and Winchester.

Another important church is the Church of St Martin (www.canterbury.co.uk/thedms.asp?dms=13&venue=3030423) just outside the city's medieval wall, half of which survives today. Probably built as a Roman church in the 4th century, St Martin is the oldest church in England that's still in use as a parish church.

Many visitors miss St Augustine's Abbey (www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.14831) because of its location just outside the city centre. The ruins of this once great abbey are an impressive sight. Another not to miss is Christ Church Cathedral, a breathtaking mixture of Romanesque and Perpendicular Gothic, where Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170.