Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The
choir screen
that bisects the church was commissioned by King Henry VIII to
commemorate his marriage to Anne Boleyn. By the time it was finished, so was she (be-
headed). But it was too late to remove her initials, which were carved into the screen (look
on the far left for
R.A.
, for
Regina Anna
—“Queen Anne”).
Behind the screen is the
choir
area, where the King's College Choir performs a daily
evensong. On Christmas Eve, a special service is held here and broadcast around the world
on the BBC—a tradition near and dear to British hearts.
Walk to the altar and admire Rubens' masterful
Adoration of the Magi
(1634). It's ac-
tually a family portrait: The admirer in the front (wearing red) is a self-portrait of Rubens,
Mary looks an awful lot like his much-younger wife, and the Baby Jesus resembles their
own newborn at the time.
Finally, pop through the door to the left of the altar to find an exhibit with a basic
history of the chapel, a nice model showing how the fan vaults were constructed, and an
explanation of how the chapel has managed to hang together after all these years.
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Trinity College and Wren Library
More than a third of Cambridge's 83 Nobel Prize winners have come from this richest and
biggest of the town's colleges, founded in 1546 by Henry VIII. The college has three sights
to see: the entrance gate, the grounds, and the magnificent Wren Library.
