This is the Bishop's Throne at #DurhamCathedral. When the Cathedral was originally built in1093 by Bishop William of St Calais the Bishops were truly powerful individuals. The North-East of England was so far from Westminster that the ‘Prince-Bishops’ were given powers to hold their own parliament, raise armies and generally rule over the diocese. Indeed Bishop Antony Bek commented in 1299 that ‘There are two Kings in England, namely the Lord King of England wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown’. Known today as the Prince-Bishops, their role remained much the same until the Great Reform Act of 1832 which largely removed their powers. The Bishop's Throne was commissioned by Bishop Hatfield who sent his monks over to the Vatican to check out the throne there. And the Bishop’s Throne in the Cathedral was designed to be one inch higher than the one at the Vatican. #ThisisDurham #LoveDurham @VCDBusiness #DUmakeithappen #DurhamDays #lovegreatbritain #northeast #northeastengland #exploremore #travelawesome #wanderful #writetotravel #luxfood #exploringtheworld #guardiantravelsnaps #mytinyatlas #natgeography #darlingescapes #letsgobeyond #TBIN #TTOT @thisisDurham @durhamcathedral #UNESCO

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