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England's greatest universities, Oxford and Cambridge, have been rivals since the 1300s. We'll visit Oxford later.
Explore Cambridge's historic colleges, stunning architecture, and unique traditions like punting in this Rick Steves travel guide.
Key Takeaways
- Cambridge's colleges are historic, architecturally significant, and open to public exploration.
- King's College Chapel is a highlight for its architecture and art.
- Trinity College is notable for its size, wealth, and famous alumni like Isaac Newton.
- The 'Backs' along the Cam River provide a unique scenic perspective accessible mainly by punting.
- The town's academic heritage is intertwined with local culture, exemplified by traditions like porters and lawn rules.
Summary
- Oxford and Cambridge have been rival universities since the 1300s, sharing similar heritage and dispersed college layouts.
- Cambridge has 31 colleges, each centered around a green court with buildings for eating, sleeping, praying, and studying.
- Many colleges allow public visits, with porters managing access and protecting the lawns, which only senior professors may walk on.
- Corpus Christi's Parker Library houses rare literary treasures, including Anne Boleyn's letters and Newton's 'Principia Mathematica'.
- King's College Chapel is a prime example of late Gothic Perpendicular architecture, featuring the largest vaulted roof span in England.
- The chapel contains original 16th-century Renaissance stained glass and Rubens' 'Adoration of the Magi' at the altar.
- Trinity College, founded by Henry VIII, is the largest and richest college, producing many Nobel laureates including Isaac Newton.
- The colleges along the Cam River have scenic gardens known as the 'Backs', best viewed by traditional punting.
- Punting offers a graceful, narrated tour of the colleges' river-facing backs, with options to hire a boat or punt yourself.
- The video emphasizes the blend of historic academic tradition and the charming urban environment of Cambridge.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Each has the same basic heritage and design. No main campus— instead, the many colleges are scattered throughout the charming town center.
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By catching one of the many guided town walks, you'll get an insider's look at an urban mix of what locals call "town and gown."
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In medieval Europe, it was the church that was in charge of higher education, and here in Cambridge, we have 31 colleges,
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all with the same design. You have a beautiful green court. Set around the court are buildings where the students eat, sleep, pray, and study.
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♪♪ Many colleges welcome the public to browse around. At their historic front gates, you'll find a porter's lodge.
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The porter delivers mail, monitors who comes and goes, and keeps people off the grass.
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Colleges have centuries of heritage, and you feel that in their exquisite libraries. Here in Corpus Christi's Parker Library, that college's literary treasures are proudly on display, such as letters from Anne Boleyn before her husband Henry VIII lopped off her head
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and a first edition of Newton's groundbreaking treatise, "Principia Mathematica." The exclusive putting-green quality of the courtyard lawns is a huge deal here.
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Generally, only senior professors can walk on the courts, the centerpiece of each college campus.
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One of the powerhouse colleges at Cambridge is King's, which has a central courtyard to match its esteemed reputation.
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The 500-year-old King's College Chapel, built by Henrys VI through VIII, is England's best surviving example of late Gothic architecture.
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With its emphasis on vertical lines, it's called Perpendicular Gothic. This is the most impressive building in Cambridge, with the largest single span of vaulted roof anywhere— 2,000 tons of glorious fan vaulting.
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♪♪ Here, you can enjoy the most complete collection of original 16th-century Renaissance stained glass in existence.
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With the help of this closed captioning, handy if you can read Latin, you can wander through the entire Bible.
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And the "Adoration of the Magi," a masterpiece by Rubens, adorns the altar. Trinity College, just next door, was founded in 1546 by Henry VIII.
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It's the richest and biggest in town. Cambridge has produced nearly 100 Nobel Prize winners, and about one-third of them were Trinity graduates.
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The great mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, who both studied and taught at Trinity, famously clapped his hands and timed the echo to calculate the speed of sound.
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Huh, 1,120 feet per second or 761 miles per hour at this altitude. The colleges that face the Cam River each have garden-like backyards that combine to make the riverbank feel like a lush and exclusive park.
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A beloved Cambridge tradition is a romantic and graceful glide past these colleges in a traditional flat-bottomed punt.
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Skilled locals make the ride look effortless. So this is Trinity College, and this is the Wren Library.
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You can hire a boat to enjoy a witty narration by a student as you're pulled past fine college architecture.
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Yeah, these are called the "Backs," the backs of the river. There are eight colleges along the river.
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So this area is called the Backs because, quite simply, it's the back of those colleges.
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The only way you can see the backs of these colleges is along the river, so the best way to see the backs of all the colleges is by punting.
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Or, for a little levity and probably more exercise than you really want, why not rent one yourself?
Topics:Cambridge UniversityKing's College ChapelTrinity College Cambridgepunting CambridgeCam RiverRick Steves Europehistoric universities Englandmedieval collegesCambridge travel guideuniversity architecture
