Hereford Cathedral

The Mappa Mundi, drawn on a single calfskin around 1300 and about 1.6 metres across, is the largest medieval map known to survive complete. It is not a map for finding your way: Jerusalem sits at the centre, east is at the top with the Garden of Eden, and the edges are filled with the monsters and races that classical and medieval geography believed lived at the world's rim. It nearly went to auction in 1988 to fund repairs and was saved by public subscription. The chained library holds around 1,500 books including 229 medieval manuscripts, still on the chain-and-rod system used when books were too valuable to let leave the shelf, and it is the largest surviving chained library anywhere. The cathedral itself is Norman with later work and a Victorian west front.

What you actually see

• The Mappa Mundi - a 1300 world map on one calfskin, Jerusalem at the centre.
• The chained library - 229 medieval manuscripts still on chains and rods.
• The Norman nave - massive twelfth-century arcading under later vaulting.
• The Corona - the shrine chapel behind the high altar.

When to go

Year-round; the cathedral is free but the Mappa Mundi exhibition is ticketed with seasonal hours and closes Sundays outside summer. The Three Choirs Festival comes here every third year.

Honest expectations

The map is displayed in low light for conservation and the detail is hard to read without the digital reproduction alongside. The exhibition is small for the ticket price. The west front is a late Victorian rebuild after a collapse.

Nearby

Hereford's Old House and cider museum are close; the Wye Valley and Golden Valley lie west.