Winchester, United Kingdom

After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital (Latin: civitas) of the Belgae and was distinguished as Venta Belgarum, "Venta of the Belgae". Although in the early years of the Roman province it was of subsidiary importance to Silchester and Chichester, Venta eclipsed them both by the latter half of the second century. At the beginning of the third century, Winchester was given protective stone walls. At around this time the city covered an area of 144 acres (58 ha), making it among the largest towns in Roman Britain by surface area. There was a limited suburban area outside the walls. Like many other Roman towns, however, Winchester began to decline in the later fourth century.

Despite the Roman withdrawal from Britain, urban life continued much as it had done into the mid fifth century. The settlement was reduced in size, but work was carried out to improve the city's defences. The city may have functioned as a centre for a religious community or a royal palace, as they continued to use the Christian cemeteries established in the Roman period.

Winchester appears in early Welsh literature and is commonly identified as the city of Cair Guinntguic listed among the 28 cities of Britain in the History of the Britons (commonly attributed to Nennius). The city is known as Caerwynt in Modern Welsh.

Between 476 and 517 AD, the town and surrounding areas seem to have been fortified by several Jutish settlements and to have operated as part of a larger polity.

The city became known as Wintanceaster ("Fort Venta") in Old English. In 648, King Cenwalh of Wessex erected the Church of St Peter and St Paul, later known as the Old Minster. This became a cathedral in the 660s when the West Saxon bishop's see was transferred from Dorchester on Thames. The present form of the city dates from reconstruction in the late 9th century, when King Alfred the Great obliterated the Roman street plan in favour of a new grid in order to provide better defence against the Vikings. The city's first mint appears to date from this period.

In the early 10th century there were two new ecclesiastical establishments: the convent of Nunnaminster, founded by Alfred's widow Ealhswith, and the New Minster. Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester was a leading figure in the monastic reform movement of the later 10th century. He expelled the secular canons of both minsters and replaced them with monks. He created the drainage system, the "Lockburn", which served as the town drain until 1875, and still survives. Also in the late 10th century, the Old Minster was enlarged as a centre of the cult of the 9th century Bishop of Winchester, Saint Swithun. The three minsters were the home of what architectural historian John Crook describes as "the supreme artistic achievements" of the Winchester School.

The consensus among historians of Anglo-Saxon England is that the court was mobile in this period and there was no fixed capital. Martin Biddle has suggested that Winchester was a centre for royal administration in the 7th and 8th centuries, but this is questioned by Barbara Yorke, who sees it as significant that the shire was named after Hamtun, the forerunner of Southampton. However, Winchester is described by the historian Catherine Cubitt as "the premier city of the West Saxon kingdom" and Janet Nelson describes London and Winchester as Alfred the Great's "proto-capitals".

There was a fire in the city in 1141 during the Rout of Winchester. In the 14th century, William of Wykeham played a role in the city's restoration. As Bishop of Winchester he was responsible for much of the current structure of the cathedral, and he founded the extant public school Winchester College. During the Middle Ages, the city was an important centre of the wool trade, before going into a slow decline. The curfew bell in the bell tower (near the clock in the picture), still sounds at 8:00 pm each evening.

Jews lived in Winchester from at least 1148, and in the 13th century the Jewish community in the city was one of the most important in England. There was an archa in the city, and the Jewish quarter was located in the city's heart (present day Jewry street). There were a series of blood libel claims against the Jewish community in the 1220s and 1230s, which was probably the cause of the hanging of the community's leader, Abraham Pinch, in front of the synagogue of which he was the head. Simon de Montfort ransacked the Jewish quarter in 1264, and in 1290 all Jews were expelled from England. A statue of Licoricia of Winchester, described as "the most important Jewish woman in medieval England", located in Jewry Street, was unveiled by the then Prince of Wales on 10 February 2022.