Page 82 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

80  BRIT AIN AND IRELAND

The colleges were designed Carfax Tower is all that remains
along the lines of monastic of the 14th-century Church of
buildings, but were surrounded St. Martin, demo lished in 1896.
by gardens. Watch the clock strike the
Christ Church, the largest of quarter hours, and climb to
the Oxford colleges, dates from the top for a panoramic view
1525 when Cardinal Wolsey of the city.
founded it as an ecclesiastical The Martyrs’ Memorial
college. It has produced 13 commemorates the three
British prime ministers in the Protestants burned at the stake
last 200 years. Other colleges on Broad Street – Bishops
worth visiting are All Souls, Latimer and Ridley in 1555, and
Magdalen, Merton, Lincoln, Archbishop Cranmer in 1556 –
and Corpus Christi. during the reign of Catholic
The university’s library, Queen Mary.
the Bodleian, was founded St. Mary the Virgin Church
in 1320. One of its most is the official church of
famous rooms is the the university, and is
Divinity School said to be the most
The massive dining hall at Christ Church (1488), which has a visited parish
College, Oxford University beautiful Gothic church in England.
r Oxford vaulted ceiling. The Two of Oxford’s
most interesting
Baroque rotunda
Oxfordshire. * 134,000. £ @ n named the Radc­ museums adjoin
15–16 Broad St (01865-686 430). liffe Camera (1748) each other. The
( Wed, Thu. _ St. Giles Fair (Sep). is a reading room. University
Oxford is more Museum of
Oxford has long been a strategic than just a uni- Natural History
point on the western routes into versity town and Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian contains fossils
London – its name describes there is a wealth of Library, Oxford of dinosaurs as
its position as a convenient spot interesting sights well as the
for crossing the river (a ford aside from the colleges. remains of a dodo. The Pitt
for oxen). One of the best British Rivers Museum has one of the
English students expelled museums outside London, world’s most extensive ethno-
from Paris founded the university the Ashmolean Museum was graphic collections – including
in 1167. The development of opened in 1683. The museum’s masks and tribal totems from
England’s first university created exceptional art collection Africa and the Far East – and
the spectacular skyline of tall includes works by Bellini, archaeological displays.
towers and “dreaming spires.” Raphael, Turner, Rembrandt, Completed in 1669, the
Many of the 38 colleges that Michelangelo, Picasso, and a Sheldonian Theatre was the
make up Oxford University large group of Pre-Raphaelites. first building designed by
were founded between the There is also the Alfred Jewel, Christopher Wren and was built
13th and 16th centuries and an Anglo-Saxon artifact that is as a place to hold university
cluster around the city center. more than 1,000 years old. degree ceremonies. The ceiling
depicts the triumph of religion,
art, and science over envy,
hatred, and malice.
E Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont St. Tel 01865-278 002.
Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sun & bank
holiday Mon. Closed Dec 24–26.
8 Tue, Fri, Sat. 7
E University Museum and
Pitt Rivers Museum
Parks Rd. Tel 01865-272 950/270 927.
Open University: 10am–5pm daily;
Pitt Rivers: 10am–4:30pm Tue–Sat,
noon–4:30pm Sun. Closed Easter, Dec
24–26. 7 limited.

t Blenheim Palace
The Great Quadrangle of All Souls College, Oxford University See pp82–3.
For hotels and restaurants see pp104–6 and pp107–9

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