The city centre stands on the foundations of the Roman city of Noviomagus and near to the Roman Palace of Fishbourne. It was captured towards the close of the fifth century, by Aella, and renamed after his son, Cissa, the second king of the South Saxons, who made it the royal residence and capital of his dominions. The city streets have a cross-shaped layout, inherited from the Romans: radiating outwards from the medieval market cross lead the North, South, East and West shopping streets. Quite a lot of the city walls are in place, and may be walked along for some of their length.

Chichester cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and contains a shrine to Saint Richard of Chichester. Its spire, built of the weak local stone, collapsed suddenly and was rebuilt during the 19th century. Within the nave of the cathedral can be seen the remains of a Roman mosaic pavement.

This page was last updated: 21 Oktober 2005

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL