Church of St Mary the Virgin
Ahead of you the building with the tall tower is the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. This has been the site of Christian worship for over one thousand years. Walk across the cobbles and stop near the entrance to the church.

The church was first built in the 12th century on the site of an earlier church. It was largely rebuilt in the late 1400s, but the oldest part of the original building that still survives is the tower, which dates from the 1270s. The spire was added early into the next century. In the early days, as well as religious services, the church was used for special occasions such as the awarding of degrees. It was also used as the university library until a larger purpose built library was constructed in 1488. That's now incorporated as part of the Bodleian Library and we'll see that in a few minutes.

You'll remember that at the start of this tour we heard about the St Scholasica's Day Riots. It was this church where the bells were rung to summon more students to help against the towns people. The students came off worse during the 3 day riot though and it ended up with 63 of them losing their lives. As punishment for this, the king ordered that every year on St Scholastica's Day, the town mayor should have to march barefoot to St Mary's to attend mass, and hand over a fine of 63 pennies. This tradition carried on for the next 500 years.

Now for those feeling particularly energetic, for a small fee it is possible to climb the medieval spiral staircase to the upper gallery of the tower. From there you get a fantastic view over Radcliffe Square and the surrounding college buildings. It's probably best to save your energy for the rest of this walk though so let's get going again. Carry on walking around the square.
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