Corfu (city)
Corfu or Kerkyra is a city and a former municipality on the island of Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality of Corfu island, it is the capital of the island and of the Corfu regional unit. The city serves as a capital for the region of the Ionian Islands; the city is a major tourist attraction, has played an important role since antiquity. The ancient city of Corfu, known as Korkyra, took part in the Battle of Sybota, a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth. Medieval castles punctuating strategic locations across the city are a legacy of struggles in the Middle Ages against invasions by pirates and the Ottomans; the city has become known since the Middle Ages as Kastropolis because of its two castles. From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility.
The Old Town of Corfu has clear Venetian influence. The city was subjected to four notable sieges in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716, in which the strength of the city defenses asserted itself time after time because of the effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications. Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was the only part of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans. In 2007, the old town of the city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List; the municipal unit of Corfu city has a land area of 41.905 km2 and a total population of 39,674 inhabitants. Besides the city of Corfu/Kérkyra, its largest other towns are Kanáli, Potamós, Kontokáli, Alepoú, Gouviá; the old fortifications of the town so extensive as to require a force of from 10,000 to 20,000 troops to man them, were in great part thrown down by the British in the 19th century. In several parts of the town may be found houses of the Venetian time, with some traces of past splendour; the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, built in 1815 by Sir Thomas Maitland is a large structure of white Maltese stone.
Near Gasturi stands the Pompeian style Achilleion, the palace built for the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, purchased in 1907 by the German emperor, William II. Of the thirty-seven Greek churches the most important are the cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Cave; the city is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. Based on the ICOMOS evaluation of the old town of Corfu, it was inscribed on the World Heritage List; the ICOMOS experts have noted that "about 70% of the pre-20th century buildings date from the British period" and that "whole blocks were destroyed" in the Old Town by the German World War II blitzes. The urban fabric was classified as being predominantly of the Neoclassical period "without special architectural features for which it could be distinguished"; the town of Corfu stands on the broad part of a peninsula, whose termination in the Venetian citadel is cut off from it by an artificial fosse formed in a natural gully, with a salt-water ditch at the bottom, that serves as a kind of marina known as Contra-Fossa.
The old city having grown up within fortifications, where every metre of ground was precious, is a labyrinth of narrow streets paved with cobblestones, sometimes tortuous but pleasant and sparkling clean. These streets are called "kantounia" and the older ones sometimes follow the gentle irregularities of the ground while many of them are too narrow for vehicular traffic. There is promenade by the seashore towards the bay of Garitsa, an esplanade between the town and the citadel called Liston where upscale restaurants and European style bistros abound; the origin of the name Liston has several explanations: many former Venetian cities have a square of that name, coming from a Venetian word meaning evening promenade, but it can refer to the closed-list aspect of an up-scale area reserved to the nobility registered in the Libro d'Oro. The citadel was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 500 drachmas banknote of 1983-2001; the city of Corfu has a long tradition in the fine arts. The Philharmonic Society of Corfu is part of that tradition.
The Museum of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu presents in detail the musical heritage of the island. Corfu is the only place in Greece, it was imported into the island during British rule. The Hellenic Cricket Federation is based in Corfu and it is the only Greek sport federation, based outside Athens; the most Greek cricket clubs are based in Corfu and they star in the Greek Championship. Notable cricket clubs of Corfu are Kerkyraikos Gymnastikos Syllogos, founded in 1893, GSK Vyron, founded in 1925 and AO Phaeax founded in 1976. I
Milan
Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,372,810 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres; the wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age. Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the field of the art, design, entertainment, finance, media, services and tourism, its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies.
In terms of GDP, it has the third-largest economy among European cities after Paris and London, but the fastest in growth among the three, is the wealthiest among European non-capital cities. Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and one of the "Four Motors for Europe"; the city has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals thanks to several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are among the world's biggest in terms of revenue and growth. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015; the city hosts numerous cultural institutions and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students. Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci; the city is served by a large number of luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide.
The city is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, one of Italy's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano; the etymology of the name Milan remains uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum planus. However, some scholars believe that lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence Mediolanum could signify the central sanctuary of a Celtic tribe. Indeed, about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France bore the name "Mediolanum", for example: Saintes and Évreux. In addition, another theory links the name to the boar sow an ancient emblem of the city, fancifully accounted for in Andrea Alciato's Emblemata, beneath a woodcut of the first raising of the city walls, where a boar is seen lifted from the excavation, the etymology of Mediolanum given as "half-wool", explained in Latin and in French; the foundation of Milan is credited to two Celtic peoples, the Bituriges and the Aedui, having as their emblems a ram and a boar.
Alciato credits Ambrose for his account. The Celtic Insubres, the inhabitants of the region of northern Italy called Insubria, appear to have founded Milan around 600 BC. According to the legend reported by Livy, the Gaulish king Ambicatus sent his nephew Bellovesus into northern Italy at the head of a party drawn from various Gaulish tribes; the Romans, led by consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus, fought the Insubres and captured the city in 222 BC. They conquered the entirety of the region, calling the new province "Cisalpine Gaul" – "Gaul this side of the Alps" – and may have given the site its Latinized Celtic name of Mediolanum: in Gaulish *medio- meant "middle, center" and the name element -lanon is the Celtic equivalent of Latin -planum "plain", thus *Mediolanon meant " in the midst of the plain". In 286 the Roman Emperor Diocletian moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Rome to Mediolanum. Diocletian himself chose to reside at Nicomedia in the Eastern Empire, leaving his colleague Maximian at Milan.
Maximian built several gigantic monuments, the large circus, the thermae or "Baths of Hercules", a large complex of imperial palaces and other services and buildings of which fewer visible traces remain. Maximian increased the city area surrounded by a new, larger stone wall encompassing an area of 375 acres with many 24-sided towers; the monumental area had twin towers. From Mediolanum the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, granting tolerance to all religions within the Empire, thus paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion of Roman Europe. Constantine had come to Mediolanum to celebrate the wedding of his sister
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, prayer, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations hold regular group worship services. Christianity developed during the 1st century CE as a Jewish Christian sect of Second Temple Judaism, it soon attracted Gentile God-fearers, which lead to a departure from Jewish customs, the establishment of Christianity as an independent religion. During the first centuries of its existence Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, to Ethiopia and some parts of Asia. Constantine the Great decriminalized it via the Edict of Milan; the First Council of Nicaea established a uniform set of beliefs across the Roman Empire.
By 380, the Roman Empire designated Christianity as the state religion. The period of the first seven ecumenical councils is sometimes referred to as the Great Church, the united full communion of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, before their schisms. Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon over differences in Christology; the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism over the authority of the Pope. In 1521, Protestants split from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Reformation over Papal primacy, the nature of salvation, other ecclesiological and theological disputes. Following the Age of Discovery, Christianity was spread into the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the rest of the world via missionary work and colonization. There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, or 31.4% of the global population. Today, the four largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy.
Christianity and Christian ethics have played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization around Europe during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the New Testament, the names by which the disciples were known among themselves were "brethren", "the faithful", "elect", "saints" and "believers". Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as'The Way' coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord." According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" was first used in reference to Jesus's disciples in the city of Antioch, meaning "followers of Christ," by the non-Jewish inhabitants of Antioch. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" was by Ignatius of Antioch, in around 100 AD. While Christians worldwide share basic convcitions, there are differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based. Concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds, they began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith.
The Apostles' Creed is the most accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism and Western Rite Orthodoxy, it is used by Presbyterians and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 9th centuries, its central doctrines are those of God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period; the creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Its main points include: Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit The death, descent into hell and ascension of Christ The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful; the Nicene Creed was formulated in response to Arianism, at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.
The Chalcedonian Definition, or Creed of Chalcedon, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox churches, taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, unchangeably, inseparably": one divine and one human, that both natures, while perfect in themselves, are also united into one person. The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, Trinity in Unity. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. Most Baptists do not use creeds "in that they have not sought to establish binding
Philadelphia Lazaretto
The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, the first Swedish settlers in America. Nearby Province Island was the site of the confinement of the Christian Moravian Indians who were brought there under protective custody from Lancaster, PA in 1763 when their lives were threatened by the Paxton Boys; the facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the United States. The first quarantine station for the city of Philadelphia was erected in 1743 just southwest of where the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers meet on the modern Penrose Ferry Road. A building was erected for use by sick people arriving at the port of Philadelphia and was known as the Pest House or the Old Lazaretto; the building was sold in 1802, with the proceeds used to help pay for the newly built Lazaretto, located about six miles west.
Efforts to control disease epidemics in the City of Philadelphia did not begin in earnest until after the devastating Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, which killed between 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants—about one-tenth of the city's population at the time—and led the national government, located there, to temporarily move out of the city. Following that epidemic, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1798 created a Board of Health, controlled by the city, with the power to levy taxes for public health measures; the following year, the city Board of Health erected the Lazaretto on a 10-acre site ten miles south of the city on the banks of the Delaware in Tinicum Township. In 1864, the municipal hospital of Philadelphia burned down and the board of health relocated it to the Lazaretto. Dr. J. L Forwood managed the hospital at the Lazaretto until the new building were completed; the new quarantine station included a hospital and residences. All passenger and cargo vessels bound for the port of Philadelphia were required to dock at the Lazaretto for inspection.
Passengers suspected of contagion were quarantined in the hospital, all suspect cargo was stored in the public warehouse. The Board of Health of the City of Philadelphia operated the facility and enforced the local quarantine regulations until the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania assumed authority for enforcing quarantine regulations in 1893. After it was closed as a hospital, it was used as an aviation base; the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In the early 21st century, the site was threatened with development, but the work of local preservationists saved it from leveling. Bedloe's Island Fort Mifflin Lazaretto McCarthy, Michael P.. Typhoid and the Politics of Public Health in Nineteenth-century. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 3-540-63293-X. Morman, ET. "Guarding against alien impurities: the Philadelphia Lazaretto, 1854-1893". Pa Mag Hist Biogr. 108: 131–52. PMID 11617876. 11617876. "Lazaretto Quarantine Station". Ushistory.org. April 22, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2008. "In the Name of Lazarus".
Ushistory.org. Spring 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2007. Linderman, Richard. "The Lazaretto: An 18th-Century Landmark at Risk". American Institute of Architects. Retrieved March 7, 2008. Listing at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Friends of the 1799 Lazaretto Historic American Buildings Survey documentation: HABS No. PA-125, "The Lazaretto, Delaware River vicinity, Delaware County, PA", 9 photos, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page HABS No. PA-6659, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Wanamaker Avenue and East Second Street, Delaware County, PA", 54 photos, 10 measured drawings, 74 data pages, 5 photo caption pages HABS No. PA-6659-A, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Carriage House", 6 photos, 2 photo caption pages HABS No. PA-6659-B, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Gate", 2 photos, 1 photo caption page HABS No. PA-6659-C, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Marine Aviation Hangar", 1 photo, 1 photo caption page HABS No. PA-6659-D, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Bargemen's House", 2 photos, 1 photo caption page HABS No.
PA-6659-E, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Kitchen/Bake House", 3 photos, 1 photo caption page HABS No. PA-6659-F, "Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Marine Aviation Hangars", 2 photos, 1 photo caption page
River Medway
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald and flows through Tonbridge and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles. About 13 miles of the river lies with the remainder being in Kent, it has a catchment area of 930 square miles, the second largest in southern England after the Thames. The map opposite shows only the major tributaries: a more detailed map shows the extensive network of smaller streams feeding into the main river; those tributaries rise from points along the Weald and Ashdown Forest. The major tributaries are: River Eden River Bourne, known in the past as the Shode or Busty River Teise, major sub-tributary River Bewl River Beult Loose Stream River LenMinor tributaries include: Wateringbury Stream East Malling Stream River GromFormer minor tributaries include the Old Bourne River, which flowed through the Brook, Chatham; the river and its tributaries flow through rural areas, Tonbridge and Medway being the exceptions.
The Medway itself flows in a west–east direction south of the North Downs. Until 1746 the river was not navigable above Maidstone. Below that point each village on the river had its wharf or wharves: at Halling, New Hythe and Aylesford. Cargoes included corn, fruit and timber. In 1746, improvements to the channel meant that barges of 40 long tons could reach East Farleigh and Tonbridge. In 1828, the channel was further improved up to Leigh. There are eleven locks on the river; the lowest, opened in 1792, is at Allington, is the tidal limit. The others are at East Farleigh, Hampstead Lane, Stoneham Old Lock, Sluice Weir Lock, Oak Weir Lock, East Lock, Porter's, Eldridge's and Town Lock in Tonbridge; the locks will take craft up to 80 feet by 18 feet, vessels with a draft of 4 feet can navigate the river. The shallowest point is just below Sluice Weir Lock, prone to silting after heavy rain. Small craft such as canoes can sometimes travel as far as Penshurst; the stretch from Leigh to Allington is known as the Medway Navigation, is 19 miles in length.
The Environment Agency is the navigation authority. Downstream of the Medway bridges the river comprises a sequence of tidal reaches: Wickham Reach Tower Reach Bridge Reach Limehouse Reach Chatham Reach Upnor Reach Short Reach Gillingham Reach Pinup Reach Long Reach Kethole Reach Saltpan Reach Until the lowest crossing of the Medway was at Rochester, where there has been a bridge since Roman times. In the 14th century the Wardens and Commonalty of Rochester Bridge were instituted by Sir John de Cobham to pay for the rebuilding and upkeep of the bridge; until 1963 the nearest crossing to Rochester Bridge was the 14th-century bridge at Aylesford, 12 miles upstream. Since the following additional crossings have come into use: 1963: A viaduct over the river was built south of Rochester to carry the first section of the M2 motorway. In 2003 this was widened to two separate spans. Between 1963 and 1996 the M20 was built, with a bridge over the Medway south of Aylesford. 1996: The Medway Tunnel became the river's lowest crossing, connecting Gillingham to Strood.
The four-lane tunnel was constructed using the immersed tube method, was paid for by Rochester Bridge Trust, the successor to the Wardens and Commonalty. 2003: A railway bridge 0.8 miles long, with a central span of 498 feet, was constructed for High Speed 1. The railway bridge lies parallel to the M2 motorway bridges. 2017: A new road bridge from the A228 between Holborough and Halling across to Hall Road, Wouldham, to facilitate the development of Peters Village. Three other major crossings are at Tonbridge, where bridges carry the A227 road and a rail link over the river; the middle section of the Medway above Tonbridge because of the various tributaries entering the river in this stretch – in particular the River Eden – has always been subject to extensive flooding. Tonbridge has suffered frequent flooding over the centuries, so much so that the higher part of the town to the north is called "Dryhill". Flood protection measures have therefore been taken. In 1981, a flood barrier was constructed downstream from Leigh to protect Tonbridge, affected by the flooding of 1968.
During periods of high flow, the flow is controlled by impounding the water and allowing up to 1 square mile of farmland upstream of the barrier to flood. However, this did not prevent significant flooding in Tonbridge in winter 2013–14. In recent years the village of Yalding, about 12 km downstream at the confluence with the River Beult, has been more prone to flooding than Tonbridge; the Medway Valley Walk follows the river from Rochester to Tonbridge along the bank most of the way above Allington. It starts on the Saxon Shore Way at Rochester; the North Downs Way crosses the river using motorway bridge. The Greensand Way crosses the river at Yalding. At West Peckham, it is joined by the Wealdway which continues through Tonbridge, thus linking with the Eden Valley Walk. Maidstone Millennium River Park is a 10 kilometres walk from Teston Country Park to the Museum of Kent Life at Sandling; the park, built between 1998 and 2001, has transformed 18 acres of wasteland and three new footbridges hav
Lazzaretto Vecchio
The Lazzaretto Vecchio is an island of the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, located near the Lido of Venice. Between 1403 and 1630 it housed a hospital which cared for people during the plague epidemics and as a leprosarium, it was used, as were other islands, as a military post. It covers an area 2.53 hectares large. Since 2004 archaeologists have unearthed more than 1500 skeletons of plague victims buried here between the 15th and 17th centuries; these have been found in individual as well as in mass graves. The remains of thousands more are expected still to be found on the small island as the death-toll reached 500 per day in the 16th century. Lazaretto Leper Colony
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west; the county shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. The county town is Maidstone. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent has been the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, since the Reformation. Prior to that it was built by Catholics, dating back to the conversion of England to Catholicism by Saint Augustine that began in the 6th century. Before the English Reformation the cathedral was part of a Benedictine monastic community known as Christ Church, Canterbury, as well as being the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury; the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury was Reginald Pole. Rochester Cathedral is in Kent, in Medway, it is the second-oldest cathedral in England, with Canterbury Cathedral being the oldest. Between London and the Strait of Dover, which separates it from mainland Europe, Kent has seen both diplomacy and conflict, ranging from the Leeds Castle peace talks of 1978 and 2004 to the Battle of Britain in World War II.
England relied on the county's ports to provide warships through much of its history. France can be seen in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county and in the series of valleys in between and to the south are most of the county's 26 castles; because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as "The Garden of England". Kent's economy is diversified. In northwest Kent industries include extraction of aggregate building materials and scientific research. Coal mining has played its part in Kent's industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its strong transport connections to the capital and the nearby continent makes Kent a high-income county. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the North Downs and The High Weald; the name Kent is believed to be of British Celtic origin and was known in Old English as Cent, Cent lond, Centrice.
In Latin sources Kent is mentioned as Canticum. The meaning is explained by some researchers as "coastal district," or "corner-land, land on the edge". If so, the name could be etymologically related to the placename Cantabria a Celtiberian-speaking coastal region in pre-Roman Iberia, today a province of Spain; the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era. There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley; the modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word kantos meaning "rim" or "border", or from a homonymous word kanto "horn, hook". This describes the eastern part of the current county area as coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as um, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC; the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses.
Caesar wrote that the people of Kent are'by far the most civilised inhabitants of Britain'. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730 and recorded as Cent in 835; the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital. In 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity; the Diocese of Canterbury became England's first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained England's centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral. In the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning "undefeated" or "unconquered"; this naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy. The Kent people's continued resistance against the Normans led to Kent's designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067.
Under the nominal rule of William's half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted similar powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales and Scotland. Kent was traditionally partitioned into East and West Kent, into lathes and hundreds; the traditional border of East and West Kent was the Medway. Men and women from east of the Medway are Men of Kent, those from the west are Kentishmen or Kentish Maids. During the medieval and early modern period, Kent played a major role in several of England's most notable rebellions, including the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, led by Wat Tyler,Jack Cade's Kent rebellion of 1450, Wyatt's Rebellion of 1554 against Queen Mary I; the Royal Navy first used the River Medway in 1547. By the reign of Elizabeth I a small dockyard had been established at Chatham. By 1618, storehouses, a ropewalk, a drydock, houses for officials had
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