You can walk around Cambridge for hours and have time to see all the monuments and sights. The best time to do this is during the learning process, i.e. not in the middle of summer, when the city is packed with tourists.
Top 13 attractions in Cambridge
We offer you a brief description of the most interesting sights of Cambridge with photos and names and strongly recommend visiting the city of students in person. What is there to see in Cambridge? It is worth taking a closer look at all these architectural structures of Cambridge.
Fitzwilliam Museum
This is probably the best museum in Cambridge. The large neoclassical building was built in the mid-19th century. The Viscount’s collection is enormous, and many more private collections have been donated to the museum over the centuries.
Here you can see works from Antiquity and Ancient Egypt, ceramics from Europe, pewter, medals, books with illustrations, beautiful ceramics from China and Japan in the Middle Ages, etc.
Sidney-Sussex College
This college is famous for the fact that Cromwell studied there. In the middle of the last century his skull was buried in front of the entrance to the college chapel. It is built in the baroque style, has marble floors, but also creates a rather gloomy impression.
Another graduate of this college was named Charles Darwin. He was not a first apprentice, and spent most of his school time hunting. However, he was remembered by local professors and went down in the annals of Cambridge University history.
Trinity College Library
One of the oldest libraries in the world is the Cambridge Trinity College Library. It is often referred to as Holy Trinity College. It was built by Henry VIII in 1546. The building plan was designed by Christopher Wren, who also designed St. Peter’s Cathedral. Paul and the development of England’s capital city after the fire of 1666.
The library was built at the request of King Henry, who wanted it to hold many books. Today the Trinity College Library is presented in its original form.
It is the largest college in Cambridge, so it has the longest list of students. Newton, Byron, Tennyson, Nabokov and even Prince Charles studied here. It was founded by King Henry VIII in the mid-16th century. His statue stands above the Main Gate of the college. An interesting attraction here is the clock tower, the clock on it rings every midnight. In the courtyard you can see the fountain in which Lord Byron used to bathe with his tame bear.
Cambridge Chapel of King’s College
This college was founded by King Henry IV in the mid-15th century, but he cooled down after a few years and soon died. The modern college building was built in the neo-Gothic style in the early 19th century.
The most interesting attraction here is the college chapel. It is depicted by English artists, sung by poets, and known in the country by a choir of boys singing church hymns.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, a kind of King’s College Chapel was built on the grounds of Cambridge. This small chapel is the best example of the Perpendicular Gothic, which replaced the Medieval Gothic. In the chapel above the altar you can see the works of famous artists.
The Church of St. Joseph, which was founded by the Church of the Holy Trinity. Coffin
The oldest shrine of the University of Cambridge is considered to be St. Mary’s Church. Coffin. It is a circular church-rotunda. The shrine is believed to have been built in 1100 in the image and likeness of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The main architectural feature of the shrine is the Romanesque style, which by the early 12th century began to lose its grandeur. Beginning in the 13th century, churches were mostly built only in the Gothic style.
Bridge of Sighs
Another interesting attraction in Cambridge is the Bridge of Sighs, symbolizing not a farewell to freedom, but the love of a young man for a girl he can not wait. The bridge was built along the lines of the famous bridge of the same name in Venice. It separates the city area from the main prison area.
Today, students prefer to spend their free time on the Bridge of Sighs.
Cambridge University
Undoubtedly, the most important attraction of the city is Cambridge University, famous throughout the world. University buildings occupy about 1/3 of the entire Cambridge area. And the colleges that fall under the jurisdiction of the university form a unique architectural ensemble, combining Gothic, Romanesque and Victorian styles.
The University Botanical Garden was founded in the second half of the 18th century, and today it is famous for its rich exposition. There are many greenhouses and flowerbeds, by which you can judge when certain plants were brought to England.
It is essentially a science museum, telling the story of the development of botany in Cambridge and England. Many of the studies conducted in the botanical garden were included in scientific papers written by Cambridge students and scientists.
The university museum is divided into several parts, and each part is founded by a different department. The entire museum is a source of scientific knowledge for students, and the rest of the public has access to it as well. There is a geological museum, where you can see the skeletons of dinosaurs and mammals. In the Ethnographic Museum you can learn a lot about the history of Cambridge, see the exhibits collected by James Cook, etc.
The College of St. John the Baptist. St. John’s
And this college was founded by Henry VII’s mother. The architecture here is quite gloomy, you can only look at the Bridge of Sighs, built in the 30s of the 19th century, not at all like the Venetian bridge of the same name.
It connects the old college building with the New Courtyard, which was erected in the 19th century. The courtyard has an original neo-Gothic style, many crenellated walls, pointed towers, which is why it was nicknamed the “Wedding Cake”.
Jesus College
This college was founded by the bishop of Ili on the grounds of a former Benedictine monastery at the end of the 15th century. The college chapel is located in the monastery church. Overall, the architecture has a stark, medieval look.
Immanuel College
This college was founded in the second half of the 16th century as a result of the Reformation era. The new Protestant priests who later founded the new Anglican Church were taught here.
Also graduates of this college later went to America and founded New England there. John Harvard, who later became the founder of Harvard University in the United States, also studied here.
Korolev College
This college is very popular with applicants because. has an excellent device. There is a kitchen, library, chapel, dining room, living quarters, etc. All this is compactly arranged around the lawn.
At the college, it is interesting to see the dining hall, as well as the wooden Mathematics Bridge over the local Kem River. It is an exact replica of the bridge built here in the 13th century. The builders assured us that it would not fall, even if all of its fasteners were removed.
Pembroke College
In this college you can see an exceptionally beautiful modern stained-glass window, a marble relief depicting St. Michael and the Virgin Mary, made by an English master of the Early Middle Ages.
Here studied the future Prime Minister Pitt, the poets Spencer, Gray, Hughes and many other famous people who left a significant mark in the history and culture of Britain and other countries.
Peterhouse College
It is the oldest college in the university, founded in the second half of the 13th century. There are almost no buildings from those times, except for the canteen. And its own chapel was not built until the middle of the 17th century.
Video overview of Cambridge sights
Cambridge is a tranquil English city famous for its ancient university colleges with centuries of history and excellent education, as well as its well-kept courtyards and excellent English architecture.