York Minster

The first recorded church at York was a wooden structure built hurriedly in 627 to baptise Edwin, King of Northumbria; its location is unknown, and excavations of 1967–73 found no remains of it beneath the present minster. Bede records that Edwin then began a larger stone church to surround the wooden chapel, completed in 637 by Oswald and dedicated to Saint Peter.

By 670 it was dilapidated, and Wilfrid repaired and renewed it; its school and library were among the most substantial in Northern Europe by the eighth century. The Annals of Yorkshire record that after a fire in 741 Archbishop Egbert "took it entirely down", rebuilding with Eanbald and Alcuin; his successor Albert died in 781, ten days after the new cathedral's consecration. Archbishop Ealdred, who crowned William the Conqueror at Westminster in 1066, was buried here in 1069 — the year Danish invaders supporting Edgar Ætheling burned the cathedral. A second Danish force broke into St Peter's Minster in 1075 and "took much property".

Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman archbishop, arrived in 1070 and apparently organised repairs. A new cathedral was begun in 1080 and completed before his death in 1100, probably immediately south of the Saxon church, which was likely demolished once the new structure stood. It ran to 364 feet (111 m), rendered in white and red lines. Fire damaged it in 1137 but it was soon repaired, and the choir and crypt were remodelled in 1154.

Walter de Gray was made archbishop in 1215 and ordered a Gothic structure to rival Canterbury; building began in 1220. The transepts came first, complete in the 1250s in Early English Gothic. The chapter house was begun in the 1260s and finished before 1296; the wide nave rose from the 1280s on the Norman foundations, though its vaulting waited until 1360. The Norman choir was demolished in the 1390s, all but its undercroft of about 1160, reconstructed as a platform for the new high altar.

Becket's enshrinement at Canterbury had left York with a rival draw for pilgrims and their offerings, and de Gray accordingly petitioned the Pope: on 18 March 1226 Honorius declared the former archbishop William Fitzherbert inscribed among the saints. Not until 1279 were William's remains moved to a shrine behind the high altar, and on 29 December Edward I helped carry the feretory on his shoulder. In 1405 the dean and chapter paid John Thornton £66 to design the Great East Window, 77 feet (23 m) tall and composed of over 300 panels of scenes from Revelation. The central tower collapsed in 1407 and was rebuilt from 1420, the west towers followed between 1433 and 1472, and the cathedral was consecrated that year.

The Reformation led to the looting of much of the cathedral's treasure. Under Elizabeth I a concerted effort to remove all traces of Roman Catholicism destroyed tombs, windows and altars. York was besieged and fell to Cromwell's forces in 1644, but Thomas Fairfax prevented further damage to the cathedral.

On 2 February 1829 an arson attack by Jonathan Martin inflicted heavy damage on the east arm and destroyed the organ; an accidental fire in 1840 left the nave, south-west tower and south aisle roofless, blackened shells. The cathedral slumped deeply into debt and services were suspended in the 1850s; from 1858 Augustus Duncombe worked to revive it.

The minster was listed Grade I on 14 June 1954 and is also a scheduled monument. It remains the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is administered by its dean and chapter. A survey in 1967 found the building close to collapse; £2,000,000 was raised and spent by 1972 strengthening the foundations and roof, and the excavations uncovered the north corner of the Roman principia beneath the south transept. That area, with remains of the Norman cathedral, reopened to the public in spring 2013.

Fire broke out in the south transept in the early hours of 9 July 1984. Firefighters deliberately collapsed the transept roof to save the rest of the building; the rose window's glass shattered in the heat but the lead held it together, allowing it to be taken down for restoration. Investigators put an 80% chance on a lightning strike to a rooftop electrical box. The £2.25 million repair was completed in 1988. The Great East Window's 311 panels were removed in 2008 for an £11 million conservation and re-installed between November 2017 and January 2018. On 9 November 2022 King Charles III unveiled a statue of Queen Elizabeth II.