Most countries can only envy England with their tradition and ability to preserve its rich heritage. There are certainly dozens of well-preserved medieval towns her and only Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of France may come close to it. Therefore, it is sad, that nowadays medieval heritage is lowly regarded as WH material and the UK thinks it has better cards nominating obscure wetlands or moors or a modest park than a great cathedral, a perfect town or a splendid palace that would be easily inscribed if it stood in other parts of the world. 

Therefore, it is good news that, after a strange archeological nomination of York has been rejected, York nominated as a town. It has a nice, manageable size but please, do not believe that you can see even its nicest parts in one or two days. We spent four days and still have reason to go back. 

The cathedral is the greatest attraction. Even, when I prefer the cathedrals of Wells, Lincoln and Ely, is this is a wonderful building, and you need easily half a day to get even an idea of its treasures. The east window is one of the great windows in the world, the refectory offers an awe-inspiring construction, and its statuary is full of riddles, even for the experts, there is a good museum, and, in the crypt, you can see parts of the former Norman cathedral. 

But while this may not be the greatest English cathedral, the town has the highest density of medieval churches in England and probably beyond. It is not always easy to find out about their opening times, but you will find many with open doors. Some of my favorites were St. Martin le Grand with rare medieval windows and Holy Trinity with its medieval boxes for the community, that were once the rule but removed everywhere with the reformation.

While it is often stressed how important Yorks roman and Viking heritage is, that is not, what you get to see. There a much better places for roman heritage like Bath or Chester and the Vikings left frustratingly little anywhere because of their preference for timber construction. It is really medieval architecture that you get to see. Beside the churches you have several medieval halls, the most wonderful is certainly the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, a real time bubble that has probably OUV on its own. Also, the Treasurers house near the Cathedral is a great medieval building with Baroque and Georgian additions and not to miss. 

And there a many more excellent museum: The Yorkshire Museum about the town’s history has a great park with ruins from different epochs all the way back to the romans. The Castle Museum offers among other treasures a lovingly recreated Victorian street and the Railway Museum is the largest in the UK. The greatest surprise was the Edwardian Fairfax House with the best audio tour I have heard in a long time, and everything was so staged that it looked like the Mistress of the house still lived there and could come in in any moment. I liked all the mentioned museums much better than the most popular Jorvik Viking Center with its many mannequins. It seems more aimed and children and can hardly distract from its lack of real artifacts. Not a museum, but a great historic hall is the Guildhall and when we asked politely, they let us in. It has enigmatic woodcarvings with many black (African) figures. I couldn’t find any explanation for this in York or online. Please let us know if you find out more about it.

Another treat are the historic pubs and cafes: The House of The Trembling Madness at Stonegate (there are two of them) looks like it hasn’t been touched for several centuries.  The Assembly Rooms are supposedly the earliest neoclassical building in all England and its splendid rooms host now a good, inexpensive Italian restaurant. This may be the most unusual ones but there are many more historic restaurants and hotels explore, among them The Grand or the Judge’s Lodgings. I also loved that there a several cafés in old towers with spiral staircases and private corners: for example, The Perky Peacock and Sophie Skeldergate. This is great fun and makes the time travel perfect.

Last but not least, an unmissable pleasure is the walk around the town on and along the walls with some great restored town gates. 

Core zone: It would probably include everything within the town walls and would certainly have to include the later wall in the west with the Museum Gardens and the King’s Manor. While the part south of the river is historic and needs to be included, there are large areas in the East that are within the walls but modern and should not be included: In the North it is much east to St. Andrewgate, then Collergate und Fossgate. Almost everything east of Fossbridge has no OUV except the Walls and some churches. Perhaps this part was destroyed in the war or was a poorer area that was torn down? All of this together makes about one fourth of the walled area. 

If you are there: 

In the vicinity you can make some great excursions: Castle Howard is cult, e.g. for “Brideshead revisited”, Knaresborough is a medieval town with a lovely location at the winding river Nidd and last, but not least, the Spa town of Harrogate with the greatest number of thermal sources anywhere in the world and a beautiful Victorian town center. Much larger, attractive and better preserved then some included sites like the Belgian Spa or German Bad Ems.