Great St Mary's, the University Church

Great Saint Mary’s holds a singular distinction in Cambridge: it is the official church of the University, sitting squarely between the marketplace and the colleges. Its tower features a heavy, dark limestone exterior and four distinctive pinnacles that rise above the street. In fifteen thirty-five, during the height of the Reformation, the church's interior was stripped of its images. Yet, the building remained the central stage for academic life, where scholars debated theology and conferred degrees for centuries before the University built its own halls.