The famous medieval map of the world Mappa Mundi is set to undergo conservation work.
Hereford Cathedral announced that the Mappa Mundi & Chained Library Museum, which houses the map, will close from January 1 to January 26, 2026 for preservation work to be carried out.
The map is an outstanding treasure of the medieval world, recording how scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms over 700 years ago.
Recent research suggests it was created in about 1300.
It places Jerusalem at the centre and 500 or so drawings superimposed on to the continents of the history of humankind and the marvels of the natural world.
They include around 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world, and eight pictures from classical mythology.
The map is displayed alongside 229 illuminated manuscripts and more than 1,200 early printed books.
Christopher de Hamel, a leading authority on medieval manuscripts, has said of it, ‘… it is without parallel the most important and most celebrated medieval map in any form, the most remarkable illustrated English manuscript of any kind, and certainly the greatest extant thirteenth-century pictorial manuscript.’
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