Which cathedral in Canterbury is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion?

Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England. Its origins reach back to Augustine’s mission to Kent in 597, when Canterbury became a central base for Christianity in England.

The present cathedral developed through several rebuilding campaigns. A major Romanesque rebuilding followed a fire in 1067, while later medieval work created the prominent Gothic choir and eastern sections. The cathedral’s history therefore contains both Norman and Gothic phases.

Canterbury is also famous for the 1170 murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in the cathedral. His shrine made the site an important medieval pilgrimage destination, later celebrated in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.