Winchester, England, a city in Hampshire. It is on the Itchen River, 60 miles (97 km) southwest of London. Winchester Cathedral, founded in 1078, is one of England's most famous medieval churches. Among those buried in the cathedral are Jane Austen, Izaak Walton, Saint Swithin, William of Wykeham, and many Danish and Saxon kings. Here also are Winchester College, a college preparatory school founded in the late 14th century; the ruins of Wolvesey Castle, where Mary I lived in 1554; and the ruins of Winchester Castle, a Norman structure that contains what is said to be King Arthur's Round Table.
Archeological evidence indicates there was a settlement at Winchester as early as the third century B.C. In the early Middle Ages Winchester was London's rival as a political and cultural center. From the 9th to 11th centuries Winchester was the capital of the kingdom of Wessex. Then it became the seat of government for Knut (Canute) the Great and for William the Conqueror. Parliament met here occasionally between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Population (district): 181,286.
