Three cathedrals in one — England's finest hilltop city
Lincoln is one of England's most impressive historic cities — a Roman colonia, Viking settlement, and Norman stronghold piled on top of each other on a limestone ridge above the flat Lincolnshire plains. The Cathedral — which held the record as the world's tallest building for over 200 years — dominates the hilltop skyline alongside the Norman castle that houses one of only four surviving original copies of Magna Carta. The medieval Steep Hill connecting upper and lower town is one of England's most picturesque streets.
Lindum Colonia was a major Roman legionary fortress and later became an Anglo-Saxon and Viking settlement of importance. The Normans built the castle in 1068 and began the cathedral in 1072. Medieval Lincoln was one of England's wealthiest cities, enriched by the wool trade, and Lincoln Cathedral — completed in the 13th century at 160m — was the tallest building in the world from 1311 to 1548, when the central spire collapsed. The city gradually declined as the Fens trade shifted south.