Christ Church

Christ Church is marked by the Tom Tower, a heavy, dark gateway capped with an intricate octagonal lantern that looms over Saint Aldates. Cardinal Wolsey founded the college in fifteen twenty-five, intending to build the largest chapel in England. When King Henry the Eighth executed Wolsey, the King seized the unfinished project and finished it as his own royal foundation. The college remains a unique double institution, serving as both an academic college for the university and the cathedral for the diocese.