n.
Historic city and administrative district (pop., 2001: 135,287), southeastern England.
Located on the River Great Stour , the site has been occupied since pre-Roman times; the Roman town of Durovernum Cantiacorum was established after Claudius invaded Britain in AD 43. It has been an ecclesiastical metropolis of England since St. Augustine of Canterbury founded a monastery there in 602 and later established a cathedral. The cathedral was the scene of the murder of Archbishop St. Thomas Becket in 1170. After his canonization in 1172, it became a pilgrimage shrine; it is the destination of the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales . Canterbury was heavily bombed in World War II, but the cathedral largely escaped damage. The cathedral and other historic buildings were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.