A Day Well-Spent: Salisbury
IN THE VERY OLD DAYS, there was Old Sarum—a fortress on a hill, with a cathedral and castle. Church and state feuded for years, and in 1220 Bishop Richard Poore won permission to relocate the cathedral a few miles away, down in the river valley. Within a generation, the cathedral was largely complete, and, not surprisingly, the town followed the bustling ecclesiastical community it maintained. The result is the most complete 13th-century cathedral in England, and a precinct of medieval streets and alleys. Today, Salisbury is a contemporary, friendly provincial city of 40,000, full of good hotels and easy to navigate on foot.
