Places
York Minster’s three towers rising above the red roofs of York.
Above the rooftops of York. Photo: MatzeTrier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Cathedral

York Minster

Gothic cathedral built 1220–1472, seat of the Archbishop of York, with the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world.

Location
York, England, United Kingdom
Building
Cathedral (metropolitical see); “minster” is an honorific
Tradition
Anglican (Church of England)
Religious use
In use as the cathedral of the Diocese of York.
Official website
York Minster

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

The seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, the Minster keeps most of its medieval glass; its east window, showing the Last Judgment, is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world.

In the Atlas

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Documented

    A bishop of York attended the Council of Arles in 314. The first recorded church on the site was a wooden one built in 627 for the baptism of Edwin, King of Northumbria.

  • Documented

    The bulk of the present building was constructed between 1220 and 1472.

Reference draft. The statements were checked against the general reference sources below, read in a build session (Wikipedia at a recorded revision, and Wikidata). They have not yet been checked against scholarly or primary sources.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    York Minster — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1382273301, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/york-minster/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q252575 (York Minster) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.