England's first UNESCO Creative City — cathedral, castle, and 32 medieval churches
Norwich was medieval England's second city after London, and it still has 32 pre-Reformation churches within the old city walls — more than any other city in Northern Europe — plus a Norman cathedral, a castle on a mound, and a thriving arts scene that earned it UNESCO City of Literature status in 2012. The covered market (one of the largest in England) has traded continuously for 900 years and the independent food scene is quietly exceptional.
Norwich's prosperity came from the cloth trade — it was England's most important wool-producing region and attracted Flemish weavers in the 16th century who further enriched both the textile industry and the architecture. The cathedral, begun in 1096 by the first Norman bishop, has the second-largest monastic cloister in England and a remarkable set of 1,106 roof bosses telling the Bible in carved stone. Julian of Norwich (1342–c.1416), the first woman to write a book in English, spent her life as an anchoress attached to St Julian's Church here.